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cowboylikedean · 4 years

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Now that I’ve had time to sit with all of this, my feelings are.... complicated.

The thing is... I was finished. I was done. I watched seasons 11-14 out of respect for my past, my history, my time, my life. I was watching season 15 out of respect for the show. To see it out to the end, to give it the opportunity and respect to be finished. But I was already done.

And then they did one of the three (3) things that could bring me back.

And I feel so... manipulated?

I kinda feel like Buffy in season 6 talking about coming back from heaven. “I was finished, complete. And I was happy. But I was torn out of there, ripped out... by my friends.”

Because I was happy. I was happy in that I had made peace. I knew that I loved the original seasons 1-5 arc, that my favorite season was 7, that season 8 was when I started to really not enjoy myself, that season 9 is when I lost all ability to enjoy the show, that I only watched season 10 for the 200th and the nostalgia presented in that episode was fun, but it carried me for two or three weeks and then.... I let go. I had made peace with never getting that back. I was never going to watch this show and have fun again, unless I was rewatching 1-7, and that was okay. I didn’t need to enjoy it. I didn’t need anything. The writers were terrible and I knew that but it was okay. I didn’t have to trust them or have faith in them or generally give a shit because they were bad writers phoning it in for a pay check and that’s fine... If you can, you can I guess. I mean it’s bullshit but like I was okay.

But now.... Now I care again. Now I need and want something from them. Now I’m worried about the fact that I don’t trust them and I think they’re all shitty writers phoning it in for a paycheck because now I care about what happens.

And I’m pissed.

Because out of those three things, they chose the ONE that I resent the most.

Those three things are (1) They kill Sam. This is clearly my favorite, and if they were gonna do one I wish they’d done this especially if it was at Dean’s hands. He’d never have a happy ending after killing Sam, but I would. (2) They kill Dean. This would have been a cut and dry “let’s go kill someone” charge. I would have had my appropriate moment of outrage and disgust. I’d be seeing Sam-stans and Cas-stans write their long metas about how “it’s actually a perfect ending for Dean” and see destiel wannabes write their mourning fics like it was cute and be justified in every spec of anger I’ve ever felt.

But they chose (3) Destiel goes canon. I get no satisfaction from this... But I do get my sense of nostalgia played upon. I get used for views with nothing in return. Well... Maybe that’s not accurate, I get something, but it’s not...

I stopped shipping destiel 2 seasons before I finished watching. Season 8 was the last time I shipped it in any serious fashion. I sat through the wild and incredible queerbaiting that was Jeremy Carver’s run of the show.... and honestly for what?! I was here in the hiatus between seasons 7 and 8, leading up to what we, the fandom, called “season gr8″ which it was only named because of queerbaiting. And I fell for it. I drank the koolaid every single week in season 8. I wrote metas and posts, my fb memories are filled with posts insisting that “this would be the week.”

“It’s not queerbaiting if they make it canon,” I’d say. “It’s a slow burn, a long build. A will-they-won’t-they.” I felt like my fellow fans who were getting increasingly more aggressive with the cast and crew had just “lost faith.” that if they saw the big picture, that Dean and Cas were an epic love story that didn’t need immediate payoff, they could enjoy all the little moments we were getting without demanding more.

By the time I left the show, I no longer expected they’d make it canon... but more importantly, neither did I want them to. By that time, Dean had been put through the ringer being the emotional support for every character, the punching bag, the background to everyone else’s stories because no other actor could pull the emotion Jensen could. Dean had everything he had despite the other characters’ stories and emotions. He was seen by the fandom and most of the writing staff as a filler, an extension. He was one half of a relationship - romantic or not - not his own person. He was “the dumb one” and characterized in really stupid ways. You can see it as recently as 15x16 when a writer who has written one other episode of the show and clearly never actually watched the show especially the flashback episodes. Dean was a caricature, not a character. And Cas... Cas was written with increasing amounts of fanservice too. He went from a powerful being trying to learn to balance his sense of angelic responsibility with love of the Earth to being a whiny crybaby who was generally helpless to circumstance. He was written in such a way where he both leaned on Dean to give him purpose and validation while also completely ignoring everything about Dean that made Dean Dean.

As the seasons have gone on, this has gotten more apparent. I think what happened with Mary and Dean kicking Cas out the bunker earlier this season (which was also written by Robert Berens btw and if it’s true he wrote the confession scene first in the season - he wrote this scene after that one) is a perfect example. Dean’s criticism there is that Cas doesn’t trust him. When shit is hitting the fan, Cas expects Dean to react in the worst possible way he could, so he refrains for telling Dean vital information and asking for help while he looks for a solution by himself so Dean never has to know there’s even a problem. Then something goes wrong and Cas is always left there saying he’s sorry, that he shouldn’t have done that... But he never seems to learn, or trust Dean enough to do something different next time. And that time, the lack of trust killed Dean’s mom. The narrative and the fandom both treated Dean as irrational and overly emotional - the bad guy - in that situation. Dean shouldn’t have done that.

But like what the fuck should he have done??? I’d have killed him. Or cut him out for good... like for good for good. How toxic is it to have someone in your life who repeatedly ruins your life by not trusting you with a problem that could be dealt with collectively, but not alone?

And we’re going to what... retcon all of that? By bringing destiel into this, all the reasons I haven’t shipped it and I’ve considered Cas to be one of the most insidious abusers in this show are what? What am I supposed to do with them?

It’s no fucking wonder the script says Dean can’t reciprocate! Because how could he? How can they really justify Dean expressing his frustration at being manipulated and lied to for 11 years at the beginning of the season and expressing undying romantic love at the end of the season?

But this isn’t about narrative sense. It’s about an ending. The whole season is about endings... and writings... and god and death to the author... The metas flying around about “god” and “the writers” are all spot on... And so, it doesn’t matter. The message is the story is what we make it, not what they do. And therefore, they call upon destiel as the greatest example of the fandom finding a story within the story that wasn’t being told.

Except that’s not true. Because it has been being told, just not with any intention of payoff. It’s been queerbaited and intentionally so. “It’s not queerbaiting if they make it canon” is a lie. It is still queerbaiting if they never intended to make it canon! And it’s not okay.

But here I am, two episodes to go and then that’s it. There are no other opportunities for them to make canon honor that unspoken promise to the viewers. This is it. And endings do matter. Despite the message of the season being generally that endings aren’t important. That the story, the push and pull, the free will of the characters to run away with the story and bring the writers and audience to new places, the interaction between audience and story and the life they run away with, that those are the important parts of stories and storytelling... But that just isn’t true. It’s a romantic notion that endings are just silly things we tack on our stories that confine us, that the real stories are within us... but we consume these stories for the payoff of the ending. An unsatisfactory ending can completely ruin a work; just ask HIMYM.

So then this is my last chance... My last chance to feel the release of payoff of a relationship I was intentionally inspired to care about without an intention of payoff. This is my last chance of vindication for all that emotional time and energy spent.

So I’m hopeful and I’m transported back to 2012 and 2013 when I cared. When I believed. When every week felt like a possibility. When it felt like it could really happen. And most importantly, when I wanted it to. Because I do want it to now. I have actively not wanted it to for 6 years, but now is my last chance and it very well might happen so now... I want it..

And the way they did it... With giving Cas his moment, but leaving it open for interpretation... IT’S SO CALLBACK QUEERBAIT. AND callback toxic Cas. Cas lays this on Dean and then yeets off? And tells Dean that it’s because Cas loves him that he’s going? Every single part of Dean’s emotional history and trauma makes that evil, but Cas does it to him? And I’m hoping he’s not mad for the sake of the payoff of the relationship?!?!?!??!?!

Are you fucking kidding me?

And then also I wanna circle back to the queerbait of it all. Misha acknowledged today that there’s some room for interpretation here. And I don’t know how that gets resolved in the final two episodes, if it does... BUT THAT’S THE FUCKING POINT!!! I will be watching live, as it airs, for the first time in 7 years, one week before I intended mind you, because I’m being baited with the promise and hope of explicit payoff that doesn’t leave room for interpretation???? And that’s not queerbaiting???

The whole thing is ridiculous and manipulative and just generally awful, but I’m eating it up because I don’t really have the luxury of another choice. Because hoping for payoff is the best option I’ve got.

I hope I get to justify my past self and see all of that payoff and feel that vindication for the part of me that loved destiel, but I consider destiel to be the number 1 thing that ruined the show for me. So it will be a hollow victory, for sure. And that’s if there’s even a victory, which isn’t a guarantee.

I just feel so used right now.

#long post #destiel #spn #personal #i'm really sorry for the length of this #i just had to get it out

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leverage-commentary · 4 years

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Leverage Season 2, Episode 5, The Three Days of the Hunter Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Mark: Hello, I’m Mark Roskin, Director of this episode.

Melissa: Melissa Glenn, one of the writers of the episode.

Jessica: Jessica Rieder, the other one of the writers of this episode.

John: [Laughs] John Rogers, Executive Producer.

Chris: Chris Downey, Executive Producer, and this is The Three Days of the Hunter Job.

John: Uh, Glenn and Rieder, why don’t you tell us a little bit about this episode - how, uh, how we came up with this? I’m opening my beer, you guys talk.

[Beer Can Opening]

Melissa: [Laughs] Okay, enjoy. Um, I think the episode actually, Albert had the first idea, of doing something with a tabloid- or media-type person.

John: Right.

Melissa: -that’s Albert Kim.

John: That’s right. It started as like a Page Six person, right?

Melissa: Yeah, and then we just took it to the room and explored it, and we just thought it would be a lot of fun to go after someone in this… arena.

Jessica: Originally, I think we were thinking, yeah, more like tabloid, but then we thought that more often people who are really, like, injured today by the media, it tends to be more like, y’know, more on-screen news kinda stuff. So we took it in that direction.

John: Yeah, with- with newspaper circulation dropping by 20% every year, they’re really kinda losing their power as a threat. And, uh, you know, there have been cases of people appearing on these sort of shows that have been driven to, uh, suicide, or been wrongly accused and [unintelligble] in the press. And with the 24-hour news cycle, you know, that’s a big deal. Uh, we would like to mention that this was based on no one individual.

Chris: No, absolutely not.

John: Absolutely not.

Chris: And if we were to mention who it might be based on, we’re gonna say Wayne Gretzky.

John: That’s good, Wayne Gretzky will be the code word. Because Wayne does not do slanders.

Chris: Absolutely not, Wayne will not sue us in any way.

[Laughter]

John: Now, that’s one of the creepier and better victim intros that we’ve done, the failed suicide. We’ve had a lot of talk about like, did he die, did he not die?

Jessica: That’s true.

John: And uh, I believe it was actually a reference on The Sweet Hereafter. The bus accident.

Jessica: It was! That movie wrecked me!

[Laughter]

Jessica: Oh my gosh, I literally watched that movie on a plane and people were looking at me.

John: As you sobbed in the aisles?

Jessica: Yes, I was openly sobbing. I’d forgotten about that.

John: So we thought the most tragic thing we could would be a bus accident. And of course, y’know. And we used a technique, so slandering people.

Chris: Now, Marc, was there any movies or any things you looked at when you, uh, were prepping this? That you wanted to, uh-? How- how did you prepare for this one?

Marc: Uh, you know, I watched- I watched Network again. It was something I wanted to see, and just watching a lot of the local newscasts. And actually, watching their newscast, where we shot the show, uh, was helpful as well.

John: That’s worth mentioning, actually. We’ll get to this stuff, and we’ll point it out, but Portland, yet again, came through for us. And instead of having to build a newsroom, we got a newsroom.

Marc: Yes.

John: Which channel was it?

Marc: They’re Channel 8 News. And they gave us the room, they gave us all the technical support we needed, all the cameramen that you’ll see on the floor there are theirs. They really rolled out the red carpet to us.

Chris: And I think there’s- is there a newscaster on this, too, from there?

Marc: Yeah, yes. The guy who bookends the show, at the end, Joe. He’s one of their local, uh, local newscasters.

John: This is also where we’re advancing Sophie’s arc. And why don’t you talk about how we wound up doing this?

Jessica: Um, I think that we wanted Sophie to be getting uncomfortable. Sort of, like, wanting to spread her wings a little bit. So right before this, she had broken up with her boyfriend and was just, sort of, feeling a lack of control over her life. And so usually, she’s taking orders from Nate and he’s crafting the vision, but as sort of a struggle to find her new identity and maybe get a little bit more control over her life, we had her take over and be the one sort of calling the shots on this one. Which is really fun. I think that everybody in the cast had a little fun, like, changing the roles around.

John: Well they had a lot of fun both teasing- kind of also teasing Tim, a little. It was-

Jessica: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: More than teasing Nate, it was also teasing Tim on some of his acting stuff.

Chris: It was actually one of the unintended benefits of Gina’s pregnancy, which was, as we did this arc of her going to find herself, everyone had to take on different roles. And I think it was probably the first episode of the season where we got to really explore that, and we get to see all the different dynamics that it caused.

John: There’s also a callback here, is Sophie talking Parker through the con; that’s something we actually reference in the season finale. And again, that’s one of the things where we really wanted to hammer, which is, they all seem very competent, but they’re all very good at one specific thing. And we really wanted to set up for when we knew Sophie would be gone for an episode or two, the chaos that would ensue when that occurred. This is also kind of a cue to Nate’s control issues, where he can’t even let her talk. You know, it has to be done his way. Um, and Beth Broderick!

Chris: Beth Broderick. Uh, Marc, how did we- how did we end up with Beth Broderick?

Marc: Beth was a friend of Dean’s, who, they were politically active together. They campaigned for Howard Dean together-

John: They were with Bill Ayers, right? They were Weathermen?

[Laughter, Crosstalk]

John: I remember, because Beth and Dean were there when Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s book. They were there but- Wait, are we recording?

[Laughter]

Jessica: Yeah, yeah.

John: Dammit, alright.

Marc: And Dean just- Dean read the script and said, ‘This is gonna be perfect for her’. And she hit it out of the park.

Chris: Boy, did she ever. And I mean, it was just amazing vision on his part, and boy she’s great.

Marc: And also- and also, for a guest star, she’s in almost every scene of the show.

John: This is one of the biggest villains of the- of the two years.

Marc: Yeah, every scene. And the stuff that we made her do, you’ll see later on- big monologues, climbing fences, and she did everything.

John: Yeah, she’s a trooper, man. She went over that fence in shoes. Well that’s- it’s- because again, we were playing around with the format. This is an open mystery, so we know what the con is, but it’s one of the times where really, the victim’s POV is the effect that we’re creating. It’s a lot like Order 23, your hospital episode, where the intent is to see the emotional state you’re bringing up in the person. And so you just live with the villain more that way. And for those episodes, you really need a heavy hitter for an actor.

Chris: And it was also interesting, too, because, you know, we were always looking for cons that didn’t involve delivering a sack of money. We wanted a con where we wanna evoke some kind of a reaction in the bad guy that brings them down, and this one was tailor-made for that.

John: Yeah. And if, uh- this was actually based on, you know, us talking about people who sell fear, and sort of the fear industry in America. And we always say we’re bringing the villain down with their original sin. And so, she sells fear, we’ll bring her down with fear. And this was the big speech- I think I’m the one who came up with the sandworm, it was- it was originally, uh, “the creature that she once bestrode like the [mumbled] on the sandworm of doom.” And I believe you wisely cut out the sandworm of doom reference at the end of this speech.

[Laughter]

Chris: Wow, somebody- somebody mercifully did that?

Jessica: I guess we figured the four people who would understand that weren’t going to miss it that much.

[Laughter]

John: And now we’re in Washington! For the miracle of stock footage.

Marc: Yes.

Jessica: It really does add scope. Every time I watch this show, I’m like, “we like- went there!!” But we didn’t.

John: Again, that’s Portland coming through for us.

Jessica: We just went to Portland, yeah. [Laughs]

John: Well, and Portland doubles as a lot of great cities, east coast cities, and uh, we got a lot of great stuff off of Portland. And this is the newsroom we were talking about.

Marc: Yes, this is the newsroom, and we had to be out of there by four o’clock every day, because they actually had to have their news broadcast.

[Laughter]

John: I love the hair and bow choice on Beth here.

Jessica: Oh my gosh.

Marc: Oh, that’s fabulous.

John: Wardrobe and hair here, now they were kind of intentionally mirroring Beth there.

Marc: Yes, and you’ll notice that every outfit that our Beth Riesgraf is wearing, does match Monica a bit, whether it’s a little color, a little highlight.

Chris: Yeah, it’s great. It’s terrific. And she really just, she looks like a local newscaster.

Jessica: She totally does.

Chris: She just does.

Jessica: I have to say, this was one of the most fun scenes to write. Like, Beth- or Parker being so out of her comfort zone? Because she is so competent, y’know.

John: Yes.

Jessica: And so to be able to write her being a little insecure and fumbling around a little bit was just, it was really fun. And that was actually fun throughout the episode, to be able to write all these people. And just, y’know, being out of their comfort zone, and the comedy that, y’know, lies in that.

John: Yeah, and also Hardison- Hardison being effective, but going over the top as he always does, which- which, y’know, brings us down. Which we actually wound up hitting in the Ice Man later on in the season, yeah.

Jessica: Yeah. A lot of the stuff that we set up here- like, inadvertently, I think, paid off in the Ice Man.

John: Not inadvertently at all, we planned this-

[Laughter, talking over each other]

Jessica: Not inadvertently- did I say inadvertently? I meant deliberately.

Chris: No it was meticulous, we certainly didn't write these things by the seat of our pants.

Melissa: Don’t mind her.

John: We weren't banging these out in four days at a time.

Chris: This was not written in four days.

Jessica: This was certainly not written the day before it was shooting, no.

[Laughter]

Melissa: I love this scene. Her lean in here is-

Chris: Oh this is so ‘Happy Birthday, Mister President’.

[Laughter]

Chris: It is. That's what I heard when I heard that.

John: And now we go to- now we go to conspiracy land. And it was a lot of fun designing Hardison’s- Hardison’s den of crazy. Marc how did you wind up- where'd you go for that?

Marc: We- our art department just came up with a lot of concepts, and our set designer, Adam, just was- he basically put this together himself-

Chris: It's fantastic.

Marc: -with Becca, but it was just great, it really-

John: And that hair is CG, let's add that, that hair is actually a CG effect.

[Laughter]

Marc: We were wondering if we should just have Hardison just laying on the floor and, you know, revealing him, but then we thought why not- let’s give him a proper reveal.

Jessica: And those eyes, how they are slightly crossed the whole time, that's actually Hardison- that's actually Aldis doing that right? Those aren't contacts?

Marc: Yes, that's actually Aldis doing that.

Jessica: He must've had-

John: Yeah, massive headaches by the end of the-, yeah.

Jessica: That's what I was gonna say. I look at that and get a headache.

Marc: It was on a special skills on his-

John: On his actors- on his headshot.

[Laughter]

Marc: Right next to rollerblading.

Melissa: And it was actually true, right?

Jessica: Be careful what you list there, they will make you do it.

John: No the paranoid- the paranoid stuff here was an awful lot of fun to write. We had cooked up an awful lot of- we had found an awful lot of crazy crap on the web. This is- yes this is the one they're building the bunkers to put the Guantanamo people in, when they were talking about closing Guantanamo.

Jessica: Oh yeah, we went through so many possible conspiracy theories. We all tapped into our inner like freak to like, ‘what do you think the government is doing’. It was really- it was kind of an insight-

John: And then when you do the research and find out what they've done, it kind of takes the-

Jessica: Yeah, it's like oh, my stuff’s kinda boring.

John: ‘I think the government lets do one where the government's testing bio weapons in the New York subway. Oh they did that…’

Jessica: Oh shoot.

John: That's not- wow.

Jessica: Guess that can't be funny anymore.

John: No, that's not funny at all.

Marc: Oh Aldis did a great job in this role.

Chris: He just so inhabits this role, you know. I can't say enough about him.

John: I don't know what is Beth doing behind there, where she's kind of, like, scratching at the neck, like she just hates being in this outfit

Marc: Yes.

Jessica: It's true, she does.

John: No, this is- this is a great crazy. And it's interesting to see how it's really a tonal shift from like conspiracy theory to Three of the Condor like at the halfway point of the episode.

Marc: ‘What’d you find? What’d you find?’

[Laughter]

John: ‘Hey, little Timmy.’

[Laughter]

Marc: My favorite line.

Jessica: It’s true.

Marc: ‘Terrorists!’

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh, coming out of the sandbox.

John: Coming out of the sandbox, yeah.

Chris: I love that.

John: We eventually- I think we wound up in the writers room just doing long rants and then taking the best sections of them.

Melissa: Yeah it was a lot of [unintelligible].

Jessica: Our poor writer's assistant, I think, basically just had to cut and paste into the script. Like remember that section three pages ago?

John: When we were really drunk, right. And this is also- like, we have to reestablish her villainy and make sure we understand that she is deserving of the horrible fate we’re about to bestow upon her by the fact we know that we’re gonna- this is also where the nicknames for Parker came up which was a lot of fun. You guys came up with a lovely bit where she just kept giving her horrible nicknames.

Jessica: That's right.

John: This office is like- this set is like the tardis; people are always coming out of doorways.

Chris: Yeah, yeah, no.

John: There's just way too much space in here.

Marc: Keep moving.

Jessica: I just have to interject that this is my favorite Christian costume of the year. Suit. I would put Christian in a suit every episode.

Marc: I would love to as well.

Chris: The Men in Black.

John: Yeah, the sort of Men in Black.

Jessica: I like it! Hair pulled back. Yup. It's good. That’s my secret agenda; I'm just putting it out there.

Marc: He's not a big fan of suits.

Jessica: No, he doesn't like them.

Chris: I have to say, I thought the interplay between all the characters in this one was probably my favorite of the season.

John: Really?

Chris: I mean everyone really- I really did- I thought all these little scenes of them just played great.

Marc: Well I love this, because this was a note where I think I called John and said, ‘You know, with Eliot and Parker when she's asking all these questions about conspiracy theories, how is Eliot’s tone?’ And all John said was, ‘big brother effing with little sister.’

Chris: Yes, that was it.

Marc: I was like, ‘Got it.’

John: That's it.

Chris: That's the model of this episode.

John: Because Parker’s grip on reality is- anything- there's a great description of Sherlock Holmes in the- I think in A Study in Scarlet where Watson writes down everything he knows. And it’s a- he knows he has no idea of the- Sherlock Holmes has no idea the earth goes around the sun, because it's not important to solving crime. And it amuses me that Parker, outside of crime, could be talked into believing pretty much anything.

Jessica: It's true. She's so savvy in some ways, and totally clueless and childish.

John: And particularly with these guys who she trusts. This lift, did we take this lift from the tango that eventually died?

Jessica: Yes!

Chris: I think it was.

Jessica: Oh the tango.

John: Use all the parts of the buffalo.

Chris: Which may live again folks.

John: Which may live again.

Melissa: Then we won't tell you what it was.

Jessica: Right.

Melissa: It's great trick that Apollo showed us, where using just a really strong magnet and lifting somebody's IT tag off-

John: Now was it- was a lot of fun, was finding the neodymium magnets and which- you know what you can do? They can tear off the hand of a young child. When I saw that on the web, I must've- I must've said that phrase at least twice a day for the rest of the year.

Melissa: They are very strong magnets.

Jessica: I think that's true.

John: I’m delighted by the fact that you can buy something on the web that can tear off the hand of a small child. The magnet that he's using is a neodymium magnet it's a very powerful- and that's something Apollo actually showed us in order to lift metal objects off people, it's incredibly strong.

Chris: And what's this location that we have as the Pentagon? This is an active building in Portland?

Marc: This is the active local political building in downtown Portland.

Chris: And they basically just emptied the local city government for us?

Marc: Yes.

Chris: They just sent everybody home for the day. ‘Go drink.’

Marc: And this was also used in the two-part season finale as well.

John: The finale, that's right.

Marc: The room that Eliot stole the badge is their assembly room. This is a fun scene. I think the two of them together was great.

John: And the camera man actually found a nice little beat here. He's just like, ‘I like to get punched.’

Jessica: I like it.

[Laughter]

John: There you go. And Eliot is always, like, this little beat of suspicion, this little-

Marc: I figured I'd go slow motion here just to try and sell it a little bit more.

Melissa: Well done.

Marc: But I love Beth Riesgraf’s performance in here, as soon as the video camera’s on her.

Melissa: Yes.

Marc: Wanting to take the spotlight a little.

Melissa: It was perfect.

Marc: And Beth Broderick just shoves her away. It was perfect. This was all ad-libbed.

Jessica: This is so local news, too.

[Laughter]

John: It's really cheesy.

Jessica: It’s very local news; just great.

John: And now there was a big thing- it was a big thing with the uniform, getting a uniform that would work on Tim. Because Tim’s hair is not a buzzcut, and the problem with television, if you buzzcut someone, you live with that look for the rest of the season.

Marc: Yes.

John: So we were actually gonna abandon the idea and then our consultant told us that the special ops guys who come back from Afghanistan keep both beard and longer hair and wear it with the uniform, so we gave him that particular uniform and it worked out just fine with the beret.

Chris: Fans of Taps may enjoy watching this little sequence.

John: Fans of Taps. Does he die in Taps?

Chris: I don't remember.

John: Does he die in Taps- or is this- could we say like we’ll do it in a way where this is like a continuity of Taps.

Jessica: This might be him.

John: This is a pseudo sequence-

Chris: Could this be his character from many years later?

John: You know, we never said where Nate went to school. We-

Jessica: That's true; there's a lot of material.

John: I like the implication that Nate Ford was actually the kid in Taps; that's kind of screwed up. Yeah, and then this was a tough one because we did not have the bag of money, right?

Chris: No.

Jessica: That's true.

John: So we had to establish- we were like, ‘Great, it’s information.’ And then we’re like, information is a great concept, it doesn't really work on television. And that's where we came up with a red file.

Melissa: Yes, put it in a red folder.

John: We spent a long time figuring out what the visual cue would be that the audience could track, that Marc did an excellent job of establishing to the audience, so the audience would understand: that's the MacGuffin, that's the axe, you know.

Marc: And ‘red file’ is said a couple times; they just keep hammering it.

John: Well what was Dean's rule? You never- the audience doesn't really hear it until the third time.

Jessica: Oh that's interesting; it's true.

Chris: And you get a nice little swagger, here, where it’s just all she cares about is the status in the Washington press core.

John: Yeah and- it's not all based on Wayne Gretzky's resentment of not being picked in [mumbled].

Chris: No, not at all.

[Laughter]

Chris: Not Wayne Gretzky's resentment at all.

John: You know Stanley Cup won't get you respect in the Washington press core. There's actually a great photo of him sitting there right in front of that wall, one of my favorite shots, just mad.

Marc: He was just in an armchair. ‘Let her run it.’

John: Oh, there was the other thing. We spent like a day, where I may have been drunk. We spent like, a day coming up with the sleazy stories that she would promo.

Jessica: That was fun.

Melissa: What’s going on at naptime?

Chris: Secret call girl ring.

John: What's killing you?

Jessica: Which of your appliances are trying to kill you? I have to say, at home it's currently my microwave. That's a different story. But they are actually trying to kill you sometimes.

[Laughter]

John: How’s hiatus treating you there?

Jessica: You know what? It's been rough and I'd rather not talk about it. It’s good if we go back to work.

Chris: For those keeping score, here's the evil speech of evil.

John: Evil speech of evil.

Melissa: This is a great evil speech of evil.

John: That's right.

Melissa: I love this speech.

Jessica: Yeah.

John: Yeah this- and this was kind of the- this was kind of an honest thing where we realized that this con wouldn't work. Where just because the people that are Wayne Gretzky's audience members believe that only bad people go to jail, and therefore would not be scared by this story.

Chris: Well, and also again, it’s like the idea of what- what kind of scandal is- would appeal to her? It’s sex; it’s salacious details. It would have to go to some different level than the violation of civil rights.

Marc: And will you tell the listeners what the significance is of Ren Field and Betsy Wetsy?

[Laughter]

John: Yeah well, Betsy Wetsy is just a doll name for her, and that's one of the nicknames. Renfield is Dracula’s insane human assistant who was- we meet, I believe, locked up in a mental institution.

Chris: Oh that's right, that's true.

John: That's where the nicknames come from.

Jessica: Obviously Marc, it is Dracula's evil assistant.

[Laughter]

Jessica: I'm sorry.

John: You know what? It's just-

Chris: I mean, everybody knew that.

John: It's just supposed to make sense to Beth Broderick's character; it's a little bonus point for the people paying attention.

Chris: He cut the Dune reference in to keep Renfield.

John: If you cut Dune, you keep Renfield.

Jessica: We decided to let that one go, yeah.

[Laughter]

John: And Gina really tees off nicely in here. And this is also an interesting idea that Nate’s not unaware of this role in the group is destructive. But he doesn't care when he does it.

Jessica: That's true.

Chris: Right.

John: And it's interesting this leads right into Top Hat where we see he's back in that position and it’s consuming him at the end of that episode. You know, where she- there's actually an interesting arc in the second season where Sophie's smarter than Nate, and is more personally developed. She understands she has to get her head together or she's gonna wind up dead. Where Nate just really spirals out in a more addictive style. Nice- nice zoom.

Chris: Nice bullet.

Marc: The ninja zoom!

Chris: And this, what a-

John: What a hit, oh man.

Jessica: That stunt was amazing.

Chris: This is- to talk about- talk about this stunt, Marc.

Melissa: This is amazing.

Chris: What happened?

John: Because when we saw this on dailies, we thought you killed her.

Jessica: We thought you killed the stunt woman.

Marc: I did too, and um, basically she took a hit really hard.

Chris: I mean, so the car actually hit the stunt woman.

Marc: Yeah, she jumped up a bit. Normally-

Chris: How fast was the car going?

Marc: Normally you wouldn't take that much impact, but she took a lot, she took a lot.

Chris: And was that her regular stunt double who does the flips?

Marc: No this was a different stunt girl that we had, someone who can-

John: Who then left the set right after and went on to live a perfectly healthy life in another state.

[Laughter]

Marc: No, she was fine. She got up; she was great.

John: Yeah.

Marc: The other problem is when we had Beth Riesgraf there, there was a pile of red ants that kept coming-

Jessica: Oh, that was-

Melissa: Climbing up on her, that was-

Marc: She was always like ‘Come on, shoot! The ants are getting me!’

Melissa: I remember she was trying to blow them away.

John: Now does anyone remember why he's a postman?

Jessica: Because postmen don't get noticed.

Melissa: Nobody notices them.

John: That's right, and what’s the classic G. K. Chesterton story that we were referencing?

Chris: The job depends on this.

Jessica: The postman?

John: The job- no

Chris: We've got five new writers out there who know the answer.

[Laughter]

John: They all know that we’re referencing G. K. Chesterton, The Invisible Man.

Chris: They're out there thumbing through Dune right now waiting for us.

[Laughter]

Melissa: Rieder and Glenn are going down.

John: No, one of the first mystery stories I ever read was a G. K. Chesterton mystery story where he figured out the killer was the postman because nobody pays attention to the postman. It's the only person who goes in and out of buildings without ever being noticed.

Jessica: Wow.

John: I’m fairly sure that's where- and this of course is Deep Throat. This is where we spiral off into Three of the Hunter,

Chris: This is Deep Throat folks.

Jessica: I know that one.

Chris: Our only note for this scene was: he must step out of shadows.

Jessica: It’s true.

John: We didn't care where the shadows were.

Jessica: I don't think we wrote the rest.

Chris: We wanted it to be a parking garage, I'll say that right now. But if it couldn't be a parking garage, it was like: he must step out of shadows.

Marc: I looked, I tried to find a parking garage, I swear.

[Laughter]

Marc: It was gonna be a company move; I couldn't do it.

John: No, I understand.

Marc: This is actually in the basement of the-

Chris: No, it works great.

John: It does work great.

Marc: -assembly building.

John: Especially with the elevator, with the cage door. I always love those.

Chris: You couldn't oversmoke this, right, there's smoke, right?

John: I think Tim’s actually on fire right now.

[Laughter]

John: Generating so much smoke in this scene. This is where we spiral- I remember- I think we spun up the virally evolving toxin, and there was that guy I went into that long bit and you looked at me like, ‘Wait, is that real?’ ‘No no, it's not real at all, don't worry about it.’

Marc: I think we did this- we did this scene, we did her scene outside of the assembly room, we did the scene of her breaking into the office; I think that was all one day in the same building.

John: Wow.

Chris: Wow. Boy that's a lot.

Jessica: And how many days did you guys have to shoot this? Was it seven?

Marc: Seven days.

John: It’s seven days. Most network shows are 8-12.

Chris: Yes.

John: Most 8; some 12; us 7, occasionally 6½.

Melissa: We don't mess around.

Marc: And the guy who shoots second-unit was busy.

Melissa: It was rather busy, shooting first-unit.

John: Right, yeah.

Jessica: Oh right, yeah.

Chris: By the way, I think the- you filled in on this one also. We should note that, I think-

John: You had like a week prep on this; there was cancellation-

Marc: Yes. Yes.

Melissa: This one we jumped on.

John: And did a great job because this is visually very- this is very layered and it's very complex. And- I'm sorry, that outfit kills me every time.

Marc: It's funny, because everybody got to play a part in this except our grifter, Sophie, who usually gets to play characters.

Jessica: That's true, yeah.

John: Yeah, that's the idea. And also the idea was to, you know, also start easing her out of that, you know, she's only around really for two more episodes of this season.

Marc: And here again is another mention of the red file.

John: There you go, flashback. And the murderous, besuited Eliot. Tim really dug in on the paranoia here. He really-

Marc: Yeah.

John: That's a menacing, scary look.

Marc: Yes, it was a lot of lighting.

[Laughter]

John: The shadow’s on the wall; that's very nice.

Marc: God bless Dave Connell.

John: And then back to the apartment of crazy.

Marc: Yes, and more teasing the little sister.

Jessica: That was so fun.

Chris: It's great her leaning up against him, too.

John: It was interesting to watch. Like I said, the pairings that wound up happening this year evolved. And not just because we wound up losing Gina for the back half of the season, but the Parker/Eliot thing got really interesting. And then the Eliot/Sophie thing got really interesting early in the season, that sort of, you know, now that he's forgiven her he's actually a confidant because he's the only one whose overawed by Nate, you know?

Jessica: That's true. I think it's funny, because last season I think-

John: Is that a good look, too, by the way, Reider?

Jessica: No, I actually didn't hear the last thing you said because I was kind of focusing on that, but the suit it- just kidding, I always listen to John when he talks. Otherwise he threatens to fire me. But I think-

John: Rat.

[Laughter]

Jessica: Or sometimes he actually does it; I just ignore it. But the first season it was a lot of, like, building Parker and Hardison’s relationship and like, we really love that and really enjoyed writing it. But this here was really fun to do more of the brother/sister stuff between Parker and Eliot and even like Eliot and Hardison. And that was, like, the most fun thing in my opinion to write, cause that was just so family-like, you know, a dysfunctional, funny, loving family.

John: And also Chris and Aldis are kind of like brothers in Portland. Like, hanging out with them, that relationship is very real.

Chris: And Beth, too.

Marc: I love this little beat of - just jumping in - of just, Hardison explains everything he's doing and just saying ‘you doubt me? Look at this.’ And it's happening in real time.

Chris: I like- this was a very numbers thing. You came up with this.

John: I came up with this because I have friends who are journalists and, you know, one of the things they talk about, is the fact that every journalist cultivates like 3 or 4 good sources on the hill, but the overreliance on those sources means they can never call them on their bullshit. And that turned into this kind of-

Chris: But it's nice; the math part I like, too.

John: The math part is nice, too. It's a nice bit of physics bullshit.

Chris: Math porn.

John: Math porn.

[Laughter]

Chris: We don't do a lot of that.

John: Project Destiny, by the way, is a lovely callback to The Core, the movie I did in 2003.

Jessica: More quizzing.

Chris: Available on Amazon.

John: Available on Amazon. I just wanna say, a lot of science fiction writers like John Scalzi and Joss Whedon, they really like it.

[Laughter]

John: And, you know, it comes highly recommended. No. This is- the stripper scene is ridiculously funny and is really one of the better flashbacks. Just- those flashes are tough, because they have to be one shot, really, and they have to convey an enormous amount of information as fast as possible.

Chris: Now here, this is- we’re getting into the paranoia sequence. This is great, I love this.

Melissa: Just the water everywhere.

Marc: This was, yeah, we did everything; every time she sees water, we just went to slow motion.

Chris: It’s so well done. It’s- it's all- just you saw that the choice of water really plays out here. Because it's everywhere.

John: Where did you get that fish tank? Who has that fish tank?

[Laughter]

Marc: No, I requested the fish tank.

John: Who has that fishtank in their office? Nobody has that fish tank in their office.

Marc: That was the one request I had from the art department.

John: And the whole idea is they're basically breaking this woman's sanity, which is-

Jessica: That’s fun.

John: But she made a nice older man try to commit suicide, and she’s deserving of it.

Melissa: She deserves it.

Jessica: That was one of the challenges, I think, of spending so much time with her, is that we had to keep reestablishing her villainy so that we didn't feel bad for her. Cause like, when you spend so much time with her, we didn't want to make her into the victim.

John: Particularly Beth Broderick, who is a particularly sympathetic charming actor, we didn't want to-

Chris: Well it's a testament to her, because it's true, a lot of these ones you want, sort of, physically imposing bad guy when you're putting them in in this kind of Saw-like trap.

[Laughter]

Jessica: Yeah, totally.

Chris: Seriously.

John: ‘This is Jigsaw. In front of you is a briefcase full of money orders.’ What no- not saw what are you doing?

Chris: A kind of psychological Saw.

John: Yeah, but it's interesting, this is the one of the rules we have, which is things can't just go randomly wrong, they have to go wrong because of either something we've set up that is an unintended consequence, or they've succeeded too well. And Marc where did you get all these amazing vehicles?

Marc: This was the local national guard.

[Laughter]

Marc: Again, Portland opening up its doors to us.

Chris: This is a product of our- of that trip we took to scout locations, which if our wives were listening right now, was to see things like this and not to drink.

[Laughter]

Marc: Yes it was.

Chris: Not to go to strip clubs.

John: Exactly.

Marc: And they gave us everything.

Chris: So you see-

John: So cut the silent treatment, ok? It's right there!

Chris: So this is why we went, so we can have this sequence, so now you know.

Jessica: Chris how's your hiatus going?

[Laughter]

John: So yes, this was the local national guard; all their vehicles, all their guys in uniform.

Marc: Personnel, guys in uniform, all their vehicles. They basically do all the repairs on vehicles that are used to also be a big firing range where they test weapons as well. That's why they kept saying ‘Don't go up the hill.’

John: Really?

Marc: ‘Don't go up the hill, there's a couple things that haven't gone off yet.’

Chris: This is a great shot right here.

John: Yeah this we couldn't have built this, probably.

[Laughter]

Chris: No.

Jessica: Probably not.

John: I'm thinking on seven days we couldn't have put that together. That's a good looking bunker. And there's Beth Broderick charging the fence like a trooper.

Marc: Charging the fence. We do have a stunt person in this shot, but we used her just in the one little brief shot. Beth wanted to go all the way over. I'm like ‘No no, I've got a lot more work to do with you.’

Melissa: I remember writing this and we thought once she throws the purse over, that's commitment. If a woman throws a purse over a fence.

Chris: Oh wow, that's her folks!

Marc: Yeah, cause it was written, I think, just tossing the purse and then she's over. I'm like, ‘No, we gotta carry this over.’

John: Yeah no, that's Beth Broderick on the barbed wire, yeah.

Jessica: In those heels, that's moxie. That's not hubris, that's moxie.

John: ‘That's not hubris, that's moxie.’ Nicely done. And now yes, cause that's just a poorly thought out idea.

[Laughter]

John: But she's driven by paranoia and madness and so-. And Sophie has seen the wages of her obsession.

[Laughter]

John: This is a- this is also a pattern that we wind up, which is Hardison in trouble and everyone kind of enjoying yanking him around a little. Because he's usually on the other- and I think we say this actually in this one. It’s like, ‘Not so funny being on the other side.’

Jessica: Yup.

John: Yup and the parallel interrogations. This was a ton of fun.

Jessica: This was my- I think these were my favorite scenes of the whole episode. Just Hardison playing around with this guy. I don’t- I just love this whole part; writing it was fun, watching it was fun.

Chris: Oh, I love this line here about ‘This is not a planned community’? That was perfect.

[Laughter]

Marc: ‘She's a freak, man.’

John: No. And these- and this is interesting. This should be taken from The Closer. This is like- this shooting style is dead serious. No- and these are- and these are actual soldiers right? One of them was.

Marc: No no, these guys are both actors.

John: The gate guys are-

Marc: The gate guys are, yeah.

John: Actual soldiers, right.

Marc: And the guys in the hallways.

John: Yeah. And she's gone and the problem is, and this is another thing, again, when you've got a five hander, it’s like who’s in the game, who’s out of the game at any given point. Who’s dead and who's been blown. Yeah, it's not fun. You know, there's a lot of shows with one lead and four sidekicks, and having like really five-hander is-

Jessica: Those lucky bastards

John: Like yeah, those lucky bastards.

Chris: And another one of our almost real time endings. I’d say this-

John: I’d say this is the pattern of the second season, that we really got into about episode three or four. Acts four and five are almost real time.

Chris: Almost always really time.

John: Act four in particular.

Chris: Sometimes 3, 4, and 5.

John: Yeah, act 4 in particular.

Marc: Here's where Eliot gets to toy with Hardison.

Melissa: Yes, just so much fun.

John: Yeah, just so much frustration and rage. Just the little shit eating grin there, yeah, because it's usually the other side. Cause there's nothing funnier than Chris Kane annoyed. Chris Kane annoyed is money.

Chris: And that was- she just did that, right?

Jessica: Yeah, that was not scripted.

Chris: A little found moment.

John: She just found a gas mask. And I like she's completely oblivious to the things that might go horribly wrong. For Parker this is actually amusing.

Melissa: It’s fun.

Jessica: It's all a game, yeah.

John: I also love, again, both establishing her mania and her villainy here, that she will sell out humanity for a chance to be in the bunkers.

Marc: Right.

John: Even in this moment, she's a weasel. Yeah, we’ll have no mercy for her.

Jessica: Yup, it’s true.

John: And I also like- it was a great job by makeup and wardrobe. But particularly make-up and hair on this one, to slowly spool out her look-

Jessica: Yeah.

John: -over the course of the act.

Marc: And keeping the continuity. This is where I said to Aldis, I said ‘This is your moment where you get to be Samuel L. Jackson for a moment.’

John: Oh when he flips, when he's got the information. Yeah we saw these in dailies actually- that look up right there-

Jessica: Yeah, that was-

John: That was like, ‘woah, what the hell is that?’

Jessica: ‘What’d you do to Aldis?!’

Marc: Yeah, I said ‘You've gone from crazy weird scared paranoid, give us a good-’

John: ‘I want you to reach into the bag and take out a wallet.’ No, he's really- and the slam, the hand slam was great. This- and this guy did a really good job. Now these- this whole act- and this was- But again, we’re talking about sort of the things you find in second season, is you go from making 13 little perfect ones, to learning how to make 100. Is you really start finding out it’s ok to just live in one scene for an act, if it's a really entertaining scene.

Chris: In one set. Yeah, like when we broke it, it was like act 4 is the army. That’s where we’re living.

John: And really only one sequence - interrogation and rescue. That’s it; there's nothing else really going on. In the first season we found this very static, and just being able to trust the actors and the characters now, this is a ridiculously entertaining act.

Jessica: Yeah.

Marc: I mean, look at all the vehicles they gave us, it's unbelievable.

John: That's your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentleman. Helping out making Leverage.

Jessica: Thank you for that.

John: Also, there's a little throw away there where Sophie explains that, you know, people don't look at generals in the eyes, they just look at the ranks. It's a little-

Marc: Yeah, the stars and bars.

John: There's a little hint to Sophie's background there, sorta background that- Gina had come up with that, we’re kind of seeding through. And these guys trying to decide which ones, who’s crazy. Oh, and the whole bit about them signing the nukes, what had been the news right before was the fact that they had accidentally flown those nukes. Remember that story? The Air Force had lost track of four nukes for a couple days. And we were like, well we could make up something ridiculous or just take the incredibly terrifying thing that's on CNN.

Jessica: Right, yup. Used what they actually did.

John: We wind up making- we have we wound up making up not a lot on this show.

Chris: No yeah, we try- We find ridiculous things, we try to work it in.

Jessica: It’s true.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Whenever possible.

Melissa: At times we have to scale back reality and say people aren't gonna buy this, it's too crazy.

Jessica: Totally true.

John: Absolutely. No, there's a lot of- there’s a couple- couple times where people go ‘Eh, it’s a little much’ is always the real thing.

Jessica: Yeah, it's never something we've made up.

John: The stuff we've just bullshitted, they always buy.

Jessica: Totally true.

Chris: And this is a good example of sometimes people say, ‘Well how would they get away with this or, you know, get past levels of security?’ Well in this one, they get just enough out of the perimeter, and then their cover is blown pretty quickly. So, you know, we’re not saying that the entire US Army is duped by our guys on the fly.

John: But a lot of that's- A lot of it is, in this season, is establishing all they really ever buy themselves is 15 seconds. But the stuff they can pull off in that 15 seconds is why they are who they are, you know. And that's the thing, is at this point, you know, he knows they gotta get the hell out of dodge, and that's why they split up, and that’s why they’re getting ready to do the blow off. The cackle bladder.

Marc: And they have a great escape vehicle.

John: They have a fantastic Hyundai, which really delivers for us here.

Melissa: Which Tim always really drives hard.

Chris: Do they give us product integration in the commentaries?

John: They did actually, we get an extra 20 grand for saying how bad ass this car is.

Jessica: Every time we say it, they give us money.

John: Yeah I like it. Actually it's a pretty- and boom!

Chris: And Marc, I think I remember you called saying, ‘I was just checking to see if we blast through the gate?’

Jessica: Yeah that was yours, was it?

John: Who were you talking to?

[Laughter]

Marc: Yeah exactly I was like, ‘Ok, sorry.’

John: We’re usually calling every week insisting on something exploding, I don't know why you're calling us to ask if they can go through a gate.

Jessica: Can the gate then explode after they drive through? Because that’d be even better.

John: And basically that's the whole idea, is they've only bought 15 seconds, the con is unraveling, and how fast can they play it out?

Chris: Yeah.

Marc: I like the delivery that these- they give in these little beats, little banter back and forth, and Tim’s just, ‘Mhm, yeah, mm.’

John: Yeah, he's really digging in. And she's even more unraveled. No, it’s lovely.

Jessica: I like this part how, like, usually with our villains; we sort of lead them through to the end. But this one, like, we just spun her up so tight that, like, the fifth act is almost just her spinning out on her own, you know?

John: It's really just getting out of her way at this point.

Chris: And was this-? Just for the tech geeks. Is this a steadi-?

Marc: There's that red file reference.

Chris: Was this a steadicam or-?

Marc: Yeah that was steadicam. Steadicam and 360.

John: Oh the- him and- [laughs] this is actually a prelude to something else in the season finale, but Eliot- Eliot in various iterations; the writers were playing around with how menacing he needed to be when he came out of the bathroom. And then we realized you know what? No matter who you are, coming out of a bathroom with rubber gloves is just never a good thing.

Jessica: That's true.

John: Nobody ever comes out of a bathroom with rubber gloves to help you.

Marc: And you can barely see it but we also line the walls with plastic as well.

John: Yeah, you just know that's a bad thing. And the fact that he actually- they sold that, too. That was a big comedy beat.

Chris: He got maced.

Jessica: That was fun.

John: Now this is great, and this is what's amazing, is that this is what's a big chunk of stuff with none of our actors.

Marc: Yes.

John: And all the local Portland actors were great cause that guy’s local. Is the newscaster that she replaces, is she a newscaster or is she a local actress?

Marc: No, she's a local actress.

John: Yeah, and she's got a great look, she looks exactly like that sort of financial, you know, on Wayne Gretzky's network that kind of financial, you know-

Chris: Yes, Versus I think is the network. The hockey channel?

[Laughter]

Jessica: Yeah, the financial girl on Versus.

John: The financial girl on Versus. Exactly. I love- we're gonna get sued by Wayne Gretzky and have no way to explain this. Like why? Got no idea. How do we-

Chris: And another thing to track here that is great, was the pill bottle, because the whole slander of our victim in the beginning was that he had taken antidepressants and was totally out of context and getting her to hold this pill bottle was a great part of the con.

John: Though I'll tell you, that was one of those moments where I realize you're 40, when we originally had the dad be a Vietnam vet. And then we did the math on driving the bus and we realized ‘oh shit, it’s Desert Storm. Oh man.’

Jessica: Right, yup that’s true.

John: And now, yes, just to taking the water with her coat. And by the way, I'd like to say uncle tenuse is coming to town. There we go! Just for the 60 year old comedy fans, that reference.

Jessica: Spit take.

John: Nice spit tak;, classic spit take.

Marc: She was great. She had another bit in the office, but it got cut for time.

John: It got cut. Oh, she was Beth's assistant. She was Beth Broderick's assistant, right?

Jessica: Right.

John: Yes, and then the crazy footage. And it was interesting again, that- Look, her eyes are tearing up; that's great.

Marc: And she did this over and over and over again.

John: But that was- it’s like Knights Tale with jousting. We had to establish what the rules were. I always admire the fact that Knights Tale explains what joint is very effectively and very efficiently.

Melissa: Right.

John: And we had to explain what the rules of her expose style are early, so that we can then have a framework for the audience to see how each beat is falling into place.

Chris: This is how she's brought down.

John: And that's just crazy and screwed up.

[Laughter]

John: I like the fauxhawk on the second cop; I didn't notice that the first time around. And then Beth Broderick taking the hit, I believe.

Marc: We did get a stunt person just for the fall to the ground.

[Laughter]

Marc: There.

Chris: Wow.

John: Oh she's spun out- and now this is a great improv by the guy. Or you came up with this on the set, right? The- the chair push?

Marc: Yeah, I wanted to keep the whole idea that they are on live, he sees the light and he just pushes the girl in front of the camera, like, ‘go, go, go!’

Jessica: Nice.

John: And also, nice choice here, where this little gloat that she puts on right here about the destruction of probably someone she hates is nice. ‘I’m Monica freaking Hunter!’

[Laughter]

John: It is. It’s Network Spock welded onto Three Days of the Condor.

Chris: Yeah it’s the whatever your local 70’s paranoia.

Marc: And that's our local Portland newscaster, Joe.

John: Parallax view too. And that's our local anchor, that's right. There you go, redemption. The end, and the bad guy has suffered, brought down by their own sin. And America can go to bed secure that bad people are punished and good people triumph. And that's the way the world is; they should sleep better.

Jessica: Obviously.

Chris: There's a nice little ending. Who’s idea is it that Eliot‘s cooking here? To carry that forward from season one? Was that- I don't think that was in the script, was it?

Jessica: I don't know.

Melissa: It was in the script, and we followed it through a little with the pitch in the- I think one of the ones where he's like ‘I cook all my own food.’ We were trying to follow this through.

Chris: Grow my own food, that's true.

Melissa: We’re trying to make this very- that’s who Eliot is.

John: And you know, it's interesting, this- We wound up shooting up here in the apartment more than down by where we installed all those expensive monitors. Cause this was just a really kind of fun, intimate space.

Chris: Well this is also sort of the family area, when you're around the table on the bar.

John: Yeah, Eliot’s actually cooking a lot this season. He's kinda going back and forth; he's behind that counter a lot. The fact that they’re- it was kind of a running gag, we never really landed on it, but it goes through the season Nate never has control of his refrigerator again once the season begins.

Jessica: It’s true.

John: They're always stealing his food. Nate- there's a running gag where Eliot’s always icing up from the ice in his fridge.

Melissa: Right.

Jessica: Yeah.

John: This is a nice beat.

Chris: A nice moment between-

John: Where he admits he was a screw up, and she kind of admits that he was a screw up also. Yeah, it was hard. I mean, you really need to establish they can’t have a romantic relationship yet. They're not-

Jessica: Not there.

John: Not there, yeah. And that was the hard won wisdom of first season. They really land the sort of friends and something more beat at the end of this.

Jessica: I loved that throughout the season. I think, you know, that gets sprinkled in a lot and I’ve- you know, them as friends is just- I don't know; it seems so comfortable and there's so much there.

John: Two lonely people who wandered the earth, you know. There's very few people they've actually connected with over the course of their lives, so.

Jessica: I love these final moments with them.

John: There was a lot of these this season, with the, like, little character beat codas.

Chris: There's one between her and Eliot in Top Hat-

John: The next episode.

Chris: -with the same vantage point.

John: 207 there's- yeah.

John: Yeah and again it's- a lot of it is - it’s ok to just hang out with the characters. That was a lot of fun. Anything you wanna say before we take off?

Marc: No, I just- it's great to be able to direct a great script, so thank you girls.

Jessica: Thank you; it was fun.

Melissa: Our pleasure.

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alec Hardison #Eliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Deveraux #Season 2 #Episode 5 #Season 2 Episode 5 #The Three Days of the Hunter Job

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t100ficrecsblog · 4 years

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an interview with @burninghoneyatdusk (she/her) What are you working on right now? Right now I’m prioritizing prompts for the Bellarke Writers for BLM Initiative, which is a mix of new prompts and requests for WIP updates. I just posted a chapter update of my fic Voices in the Water, which is a canon-verse/everyone is a grounder arranged marriage AU with a bit of a twist, and next I’m working on a new prompt. After that, I’ve got three chapters of All Because of You requested. All Because of You is a modern AU with bellarke as *platonic* coparents. The story is told in alternating flashbacks and present day (every other chapter). The flashbacks focus on them growing closer during Clarke’s unplanned pregnancy and the present is seven years later, where they have to come to terms with their feelings for each other when Clarke gets engaged to someone else.

What’s something you’d like to write one day? I would love to publish a novel one day. For years I had a YA dystopian/time travel trilogy kind of planned but I poked too many holes in it and want to start from scratch in that regard. Another novel I want to write is one that covers three generations of women, looking at mother-daughter relationships, women in society, generational trauma… a lot of stuff. It was inspired by learning about my grandmother’s life more and thinking about how it impacted her relationship with my mother, and in turn my mother’s relationship with me.

For fanfiction, beyond my current prompts and WIPs, I have two other fics outlined. One is an AU inspired by the movie Plus One. The other is a soulmate AU that’s a bit dark and involves immortality, magic, and essentially Bellamy as a villain with a redemption arc.

What is the fanwork you’re most proud of? I think All Because of You will probably remain my most popular, but right now I’m most proud of Voices in the Water. More so than my other fics, it has a more concise plot and I’ve done a deeper dive into Clarke’s character as an Azgeda assassin and I think the reader really gets into her head more than my other multiple POV fics. It’s also my first canonverse fic and I’ve enjoyed diving into that world and expanding upon it where I want.

When did you first start writing fic? I didn’t start writing fic until the beginning of 2019. I first published in February 2019, which was Homesick (It’s a Bittersweet Feeling). It was my first fic and the only multichapter WIP that’s complete right now, so it’s a special story for me.

What frustrates you most about fic writing? I’ve mostly had only a positive experience with fanfic writing. With the exception of a couple stray comments, my readers have been gracious, kind, and most importantly, patient. But I guess it can be challenging when you self-impose pressure because you’re aware that people are waiting for you to publish so sometimes I rush things. I haven’t personally experienced this, but I think that fic writing can also be frustrating when readers feel like you owe them something or unnecessarily offer negative comments that aren’t at all constructive. Some people forget that people are publishing stories for free, in their spare time, often in addition to full-time jobs or school and parenting.

What are your top five songs right now? 1. castles (freya ridings) 2. maniac (conan gray) 3. fired up (grace carter) 4. I am not afraid (g flip) 5. wanna be (betty who)

What are your inspirations? (books, songs, other fic) I take inspiration from all of those things but I would say mostly quotes and random photos on tumblr. I wrote Homesick because I liked the step-siblings/forbidden trope and wanted to write in a small town setting like the one I grew up in. All Because of You was honestly the classic “this is my bedtime daydream story I think about every night” so it’s pretty self-indulgent with the tropes I wanted to use. Voices in the Water was started because I loved the grounder!Bellamy / arranged marriage trope. The wanheda twist came from me reading the 4x11 script to screen with Clarke trying to force herself to shoot Bellamy to save humanity, but realizing that she can’t.

What first attracted you to Bellarke? What attracts you now? I’m not sure I remember a specific moment but I think I remember bellarke being all over my tumblr dash when I started s2 so kind of paying close attention to them during s2. s2 was of course a great season for them and by the ‘knocking on heaven’s door’ scene in 2x16 I was a goner.

Regarding what drew me to them, I think I’ve always loved a good slow burn with the partners/”I’ve got your back” vibe that they have. My first (and biggest) OTP before them was tony & ziva from NCIS which is a really similar vibe although a very different show.

Besides Bellarke, what character or pairing do you like best on t100? I think that Memori is probably my second place ship. Before s7, I would say there was a HUGE gap between my love of Bellarke and Memori, but this season has made me an even bigger Memori fan. I have to say that while I don’t think there was ever a chance of Murven happening, I do understand why people ship it. I think they have great chemistry/a great dynamic and in another life, so to speak, I would have shipped them.

Regarding characters on their own, I just love all my delinquents, but I think that Murphy is solidly my third favorite character. Raven and Octavia are probably tied behind him.

Why did you decide to start bellarkefic-for-blm? I credit the reason to Kara ( @queenemori ). (Sidenote: everyone go follow her! She’s an amazing fanfic writer and overall just a really positive, awesome person to have in the fandom). I remember reading her post - and I won’t try to paraphrase, so please take the time to read her it - but in general it got me thinking about how we as a fandom could support the BLM movement in a substantial way that is more than just spreading posts on social media, and in a way that doesn’t lose momentum as time goes on and the movement becomes less “trendy.” I thought about how many people collectively read our fanfiction and how we provide it for free, and if people could just pay a few dollars or however much they can afford and donate that to the cause, we collectively could make a huge difference. So that’s what I’m hoping this is - making a substantial difference in a way that doesn’t fade in time and also uses the power of fandom in a useful way. We have a lot of power if we collectively put it towards something like this instead of fighting over ships or actors or whatnot. I also figured that maybe we’d have readers who weren’t paying attention to the movement and that maybe because they want to submit a prompt, they’d do some research on where to donate, and that in turn helps educate them on the issue - or is at least a start.

Has it been as successful as you’d hoped? So on the positive side, I do think it’s incredible that in about six weeks we’ve raised nearly $1250 and have been able to donate to a variety of organizations. I’m incredibly grateful for the authors donating their time and the enthusiastic readers participating. I don’t mean to sound negative at all, but if I’m being honest, I do feel a little frustration at the lack of participation across the fandom as a whole or maybe more specifically across the AO3 readers. I know that my WIP chapters average about 1k hits per update. That’s a lot of people. Even if you cut that in half because maybe people are rereading, that’s still 500 people. So why are only about 20 of my readers donating to this initiative? I think it’s a bit discouraging when you look at the percentage in that way.

That’s not to say that I don’t understand that some aren’t financially in a position to donate, but I’ve made it clear that there are other ways to contribute (e.g. signing petitions, writing to politicians) and there hasn’t been traction with that either. So I think that in general, something is always better than nothing and it has in no way discouraged me from continuing this. But I’m hoping that more people are able to participate as time goes on. It’s truly a win-win situation of generating more fanfics for readers and donating to an important issue, so I hope to see the percentage of fanfiction readers submitting prompts increase and am doing what I can to continue spreading the word about it.

I guess in summary what I’m saying is, I’m proud of what the fandom has done so far, but let’s step it up. We can do more, we can do better. Maybe people will get pissed I said that, but idk. If you read fic and can buy a $3 coffee, you can donate to this cause. It’s important. As was Kara’s point, let’s not see this momentum fade when the BLM movement becomes less ~trendy~.

What are some things you’d like to recommend? Instead of writing an essay about all the fics I love, I’d like to link both my bookmarked fics which is my complete list of bellarke fic recs.

I also want to recommend visiting the Bellarke Writers for BLM Initiative writers’ page - these writers are incredible so please go check out their existing works and continue requesting prompts for the BLM movement!

On the note of BLM, I'd also like to link this article. It's older, written in the aftermath of the Charleston attack, but it remains one of the most thought provoking pieces I've read on race in our country.

it was my honor to interview burninghoneyatdusk! honestly, if you aren’t reading Voices in the Water, which is Bellarke except Clarke is an assassin, you should be. it haunts me. she also organized the very cool bellarkefic-for-blm.

#bellarke fic #bellarke #the 100 fanfiction #memori #clarke griffin #interview

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gra-sonas · 4 years

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S2 of Roswell, New Mexico is underway, and Michael Vlamis is back to gracing our screen as the lovable Michael Guerin. Not only did he film season two, over the last year Vlamis has been incredibly busy, making The Black List for his script “Blue Slide Park” with Kyle Anderson, and also releasing a successful mer.ch line with Blank Clo.

We got the chance to talk to Vlamis recently about the second season of Roswell, New Mexico, writing, what he’s binge watching, and more.

Nerds and Beyond: You bring such passion and emotion to all of your scenes. How do you distance yourself from that and take care of you? What do you do to get into that headspace?

Michael Vlamis: To be honest, I’m not good at distancing myself, but part of me likes that. The more I feel, the better the performance, so bring on the pain! The idea that art imitates life has been very apparent for me when it comes to my work. It’s exhausting at times, but always worth it.

Nerds and Beyond: How hard or easy was it to slip back into Michael Guerin?

Vlamis: Like riding a bike! 6 months of being him every day in season 1 set the foundation I needed. Plus, once you’re surrounded by the cast and back on set, it feels like you never left.

Nerds and Beyond: What was your favorite scene to film from Season 2 that we’ve seen so far?

Vlamis: Now, you’ve seen episode 2, so I’m [going] to say the final scene of episode 2 with Maria. That was a heartfelt apology that had a lot of fight, but also a lot of love.

Nerds and Beyond: We’ve already seen Michael in a downward spiral; pushing people away, drinking, etc. after the loss of Max and his mother. Is this going to continue to have a profound impact on Michael throughout the season?

Vlamis: Definitely. He’s a mess. Hopefully over time he’ll learn more about his past and have some peace, but that might not be for a little while.

Nerds and Beyond: How do you think the loss of Max has impacted Michael and Isobel’s relationship?

Vlamis: Max is supposed to be the savior. Now, Guerin feels he might have to be that. And he hates it. But even though I’m wrestling with that feeling, I know I’m all Isobel has left and I’d do anything for her, so the death of Max has to bring us together.

Nerds and Beyond: One of the things we loved most about the Season 2 premiere was the quote, “I want to be good for somebody.” Is there still hope for Michael and Alex?

Vlamis: The hopeless romantic in me says, of course! When you love someone the way they loved and maybe still do love each other, there’s always a chance.

Nerds and Beyond: Have you enjoyed getting to explore more of Michael’s nerdier side (like with technology/science)?

Vlamis: Haha, oh yes! It’s a challenge. I love working with the blow torches, moving heavy machinery with my mind, and getting scenes with Liz and Kyle, so for sure, bring on the science! It’s only tough when I have no idea how to pronounce certain words!

Nerds and Beyond: Did you all approach Season 2 any differently knowing you had a Season 3 to continue the story?

Vlamis: That’s a good question! I can’t speak on everyone else, but I’m assuming it puts people at ease, allowing them to give their best performance. I guess it could also make people lazy, but I didn’t witness any of that on our set. If it did anything, it motivated us to keep striving for greatness.

Nerds and Beyond: Is there anything (we know you can’t spoil!) that we can look forward to regarding Michael or his storyline coming up?

Vlamis: Episode 5 divulges a lot about Michael’s past and what happened after Michael didn’t go off to college. I’m excited for all of you to see that. Oh, and finding out the truth about my mom is pretty special!

Nerds and Beyond: Moving away from Roswell, we know you wrote a script about Mac Miller. Are there any other scripts or projects you’re working on that you can tell us about?

Vlamis: Oh, yes! I’m always cooking something up. I have a Halloween comedy called COSTUMES REQUIRED set up at Seth MacFarlane’s company, Fuzzy Door Productions, and a comedic TV show, MUSIC THEORIES, set up at Stampede Ventures, which has the AMERICAN VANDAL showrunner, Dan Lagana, attached to showrun. I’m really excited about both of those projects. There are other scripts of mine floating around as well, so we’ll see what happens!

Nerds and Beyond: Everyone loved your mer.ch line. Is that something you’re planning to do again?

Vlamis: 100%! It was sooo much work, but the entire process was extremely rewarding. I already have all the design ideas worked out and was going to release the new line soon, but this pandemic has set everyone back. Either way, it’ll be coming by the end of the year 🙂

Nerds and Beyond: What are you watching right now? What’s something you recommend people can binge-watch during this time?

Vlamis: DAVE! It’s an FX show that you can find on Hulu. It’s hilarious.

Nerds and Beyond: How has being in Roswell, NM affected your life? Have you been recognized a lot more in public?

Vlamis: Definitely, but nothing too crazy. Some weeks I’ll get recognized more often than not and other times, nobody says anything. I have no problem living a normal life. Even when fans come up to me, they’re very respectful. It’s rare that someone makes you feel uncomfortable. But ask me again in a few years!

Nerds and Beyond: We here at Nerds love diving into nerdy things people love. So, below, we’ll have a few questions and answer the first one that comes to mind.

Favorite Disney character: Vlamis: Goofy!

Favorite musical: Vlamis: The Book of Mormon

Favorite book: Vlamis: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Favorite animal: Vlamis: Monkey

If you had a patronus (from Harry Potter), what animal would it be? Vlamis: A lion! They’re badass.

Favorite quote: Vlamis:“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” – Oscar Wilde

~ NerdsAndBeyond

#michael vlamis #roswell new mexico #rnm spoilers #rnm cast interviews #michael guerin

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yasbxxgie · 4 years

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Chris Rock wasn’t sure if he was hiding out or not.

On the Friday before Labor Day, he was speaking by phone from Yellow Springs, Ohio, the rustic village where he’d gone to spend time with Dave Chappelle, his friend and fellow comedian. Rock had previously traveled there in July to perform for a small, socially distanced audience as part of an outdoor comedy series Chappelle has been hosting. But Rock couldn’t decide if this return visit was meant to be clandestine. “I don’t know if it’s a secret,” he said quietly. “Maybe it is out here.” He couldn’t easily find the words to describe what he’d been doing just before this trip, either. “I mean, I guess I’ve been acting,” he said. After a short pause, he added, at a more assuredly Rock-like volume: “In a pandemic.”

In August, Rock had gone to Chicago to finish filming the fourth season of “Fargo,” the supremely arch FX crime drama, which makes its debut on Sept. 27. The show’s creator, Noah Hawley, had chosen him to star in its latest story line, set in the dapper gangland of 1950s Kansas City, Mo., and which casts Rock — the indefatigable standup and comic actor — as a mannered, methodical crime lord named Loy Cannon.

Maybe in a different universe where the show premiered in April as originally planned, the “Fargo” role has already put the 55-year-old Rock on a whole new career trajectory, opening the door to more serious and substantial roles and silencing the chorus of fans who still knowingly ask him for “one rib.” Maybe in this universe it still will.

But when the coronavirus pandemic struck, production on “Fargo” was halted in March, and Rock and his co-stars (including Jason Schwartzman, Ben Whishaw, Jessie Buckley and Andrew Bird) were all sent packing. Then at the end of the summer, Rock was summoned back to set, first to spend a week in quarantine and then to complete his acting work under new protocols and not a little bit of stress.

Other prominent projects of his have also been pushed back — he has a starring role in “Spiral,” a reboot of the “Saw” horror series, whose release was postponed a full year to May 2021. But Rock wasn’t mourning the delay of any professional gratification, having spent the spring and summer realigning his values for the new reality of pandemic life. “Maybe for like a day or two, I was like, ‘Oh, me,’” he said with an exaggerated whimper. “But honestly, it was more like, I’ve got to get to my kids and make sure my family is safe.”

In that time he has also heard countless Americans echoing the lesson he offered in the opening minutes of his 2018 standup special, “Tamborine,” where he spoke humorously but emphatically about the ongoing incidents of police violence against Black people. As he said in that routine, law enforcement was among the professions that simply cannot allow “a few bad apples”: “American Airlines can’t be like, ‘You know, most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash in the mountains.’”

Now Rock was feeling mistrustful about the power of his comedy to do anything other than entertain, and unsure when he would get to perform it again for large audiences. And he was admittedly wary about this very interview, explaining with a chuckle that when he talks to the print media, he said, “You have to be comfortable with being boring. If you’re not comfortable with being boring, occasionally, you’re going to get in trouble.”

Not that Rock was ever boring in a wide-ranging conversation that encompassed “Fargo” and his broader career; his latest observations on a nation grappling simultaneously with a pandemic and a reinvigorated longing for racial equality; the resurfacing of a past video where Jimmy Fallon impersonated him in blackface; and of course, President Trump. (“No one has less compassion for humans than a landlord,” he said.) Even in the absence of an audience, Rock was candid, increasingly animated, uncommonly nimble and always looking for the laugh. Now, let the trouble begin.

These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Was there a time when you thought this “Fargo” season was never going to get finished and that the series might not be seen for a long time, if ever?

I’ve had weird little things in my career — I was supposed to do this Bob Altman movie, “Hands on a Hard Body.” We were on the phone a lot, going over my character and I was so excited about doing the movie. And he died. I was supposed to be Jimmy Olsen in “Superman” with Nic Cage [“Superman Lives,” which was canceled in the late 1990s]. I remember going to Warner Bros., doing a costume fitting. Hanging out with Tim [Burton], who I idolized. Like, I’m hanging out with the guy that made “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and he’s showing me the models of the sets for “Superman.” So yeah, I definitely thought there’s a chance this might not happen. Fortunately for everyone involved, that was not the case.

How did Noah Hawley approach you about “Fargo”?

It was a weird day, because it was the day of the Emmy nominations and I didn’t get nominated for my last special [“Tamborine”]. I wouldn’t say I was down down, but I was a little disappointed, and then I got a call from my agent that Noah Hawley wanted to meet with me.

I get acting offers, but I get more hosting offers than anything. It is not uncommon for somebody to want me to do a high-priced wedding or bar mitzvah — a few years ago, I officiated the wedding of Daniel Ek, the owner of Spotify, and Bruno Mars was the wedding band. I think I sat next to [Mark] Zuckerberg at the reception. [Laughs.] I just assumed Noah had some crazy request like that. The only reason I went is because I love “Fargo.” And I get there and he offers me this part.

How did he explain the character of Loy Cannon to you?

He said 1950s gangster, so I know exactly who he’s talking about. My father was born in 1933. It’s not like “12 Years a Slave.” It’s literally a guy my grandfather’s age.

In the first episode, we see Loy pitching the idea for credit cards to an uninterested white banker. Is he a man who wants to be part of polite society, but it doesn’t want him?

I mean, I remember having a production overall deal at HBO and I came in with one person to sell a talk show with them. And they wouldn’t. That person’s name is Wendy Williams. [Laughs.] That’s $100 million that I never made. I was selling Leslie Jones to people, to agents and managers, for 10 years before she got on “S.N.L.” I’m very familiar with selling a no-brainer that people go, “Huh? Why that?”

Is he different from characters you’ve played before, because he’s older and we don’t know how much longer he’s going to be sitting on his throne?

Yeah, it’s one of those jobs: Because of how well it pays, you could be killed at any moment. It is the best part I’ve ever, ever, ever had. I hope it’s not the best part I ever have. Hey, Morgan Freeman’s done a hundred movies since “Shawshank Redemption.” But that’s the best part he ever had.

This role feels like it’s declaring itself as being outside the realm of what you’re best known for. Are you thinking differently about your acting career and where you hope to go with it?

My casting isn’t as weird as it seems if you really watch “Fargo.” Key and Peele are in the first season and Brad Garrett’s amazing in Season 2. Hey, it’s my turn, OK? I want to work on good stuff. Everything I’ve done hasn’t been great, but I was always striving for greatness. I loved “Marriage Story.” I’d kill for something like that. [Laughs.] You see what [Adam] Sandler did with “Uncut Gems.” But you’ve got to get the call and be ready when your number’s called.

Your 2014 film “Top Five,” which you wrote, directed and starred in, was very personal for you. Do you want to make more movies like that?

That’s a vein I intend to keep going in. When I made “Top Five,” I got divorced. And like most people that get divorced, I needed money. [Laughs.] I had to pay for stuff. I also went on tour. Because of Covid, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any serious touring until 2022. So I’m a writer-director-actor right now. I’m working on some scripts in the “Top Five” vein and I honestly hope to direct, some time after the new year.

How much of “Fargo” did you have to finish during the pandemic?

It was like an episode and a half — the whole last episode, and some scenes from the one before it. It’s weird, quarantine when you’re acting. Acting can be isolating, anyway, and then you throw quarantine into that. You’re in solitary confinement with Netflix and Uber Eats. But let’s not get it too twisted. Somebody that’s in solitary is like, shut the [expletive] up. And then to actually act and get tested every other day, and wear a mask whenever you’re not saying your lines. And be cognizant of which zone you’re in. Because for Zone A, everyone’s been tested, but in Zone B, not everyone’s been tested. Zone C is just, everyone’s got Covid.

You performed at one of Chappelle’s live shows in July. What was that like for you?

When you’re in the clubs, you learn the rain crowd is the best crowd. Any time it’s raining, they really want to be there. The pandemic crowd is really good. “Dude, not only do we want to be here, there is nothing else to do. There’s nothing else to watch. Thank you.”

What did you talk about?

I talked about our political whatever. America. Part of the reason we’re in the predicament we’re in is, the president’s a landlord. No one has less compassion for humans than a landlord. [Laughs.] And we’re shocked he’s not engaged.

Did you ever see that movie “The Last Emperor,” where like a 5-year-old is the emperor of China? There’s a kid and he’s the king. So I’m like, it’s all the Democrats’ fault. Because you knew that the emperor was 5 years old. And when the emperor’s 5 years old, they only lead in theory. There’s usually an adult who’s like, “OK, this is what we’re really going to do.” And it was totally up to Pelosi and the Democrats. Their thing was, “We’re going to get him impeached,” which was never going to happen. You let the pandemic come in. Yes, we can blame Trump, but he’s really the 5-year-old.

Put it this way: Republicans tell outright lies. Democrats leave out key pieces of the truth that would lead to a more nuanced argument. In a sense, it’s all fake news.

Looking back at the beginning of “Tamborine,” the first several minutes is you talking about police violence and raising Black children in a racist country. Does it feel futile when you discuss these issues and it doesn’t change anything?

I remember when “Tamborine” dropped, I got a lot of flak over that cop thing. There was a lot of people trying to start a fire that never really picked up. It’s so weird that, two years later, it’s right on. I remember watching the news and Trump said “bad apples.” It was like, you did it! You did it!

But you told people two years ago —

I did. But so did Public Enemy. So did KRS-One. So did Marvin Gaye. There’s something about seeing things on camera. If O.J. kills Nicole on camera, the trial is two days. [Laughs.] It’s two days trying to figure out what kind of cell he deserves. It’s just Johnnie going, [Johnnie Cochran voice] “Well I think he needs at least a 12-by-8. Can he have ESPN?” That would be the whole trial.

But there was videotape of Rodney King’s beating, too. It doesn’t assure any particular outcome.

Yeah, man. Put it this way: This is the second great civil rights movement. And Dr. King and those guys were amazing. But they knew nothing about money. They didn’t ask for anything. At the end of the day, the things we got — it was just, hey, can you guys be humane? All we got was, like, humanity. If they had it to do all over again, in hindsight, there would be some attention paid to the financial disparity of all the years of — let’s not even count slavery, let’s just count Jim Crow.

You’re talking about a system that really didn’t end until about 1973. And I’m born in ’65 in South Carolina. I’m probably in a segregated wing of a hospital — there’s no way in the world I was next to a white baby. Even if the hospital wasn’t segregated, I was in a whole other room and that room didn’t have the good milk and the good sheets. My parents couldn’t own property in certain neighborhoods when I was born. There was an economic disparity there, and that was not addressed in the original civil rights movement. It was a huge oversight. So there’s no money and there’s no land. If you don’t have either one of those, you don’t really have much.

Did you want to participate in the recent protests?

Me and my kids, we looked from afar. But we’re in the middle of a pandemic, man, and I know people who have absolutely passed from it. I’m like, dude, this Covid thing is real.

You’ve been telling audiences for years that racism isn’t going away and remains a potent force in America. Do you feel like you’ve seen circumstances improve at all?

It’s real. It’s not going away. I said this before, but Obama becoming the president, it’s progress for white people. It’s not progress for Black people. It’s the Jackie Robinson thing. It’s written like he broke a barrier, as if there weren’t Black people that could play before him. And that’s how white people have learned about racism. They think, when these people work hard enough, they’ll be like Jackie. And the real narrative should be that these people, the Black people, are being abused by a group of people that are mentally handicapped. And we’re trying to get them past their mental handicaps to see that all people are equal.

Humanity isn’t progress — it’s only progress for the person that’s taking your humanity. If a woman’s in an abusive relationship and her husband stops beating her, you wouldn’t say she’s made progress, right? But that’s what we do with Black people. We’re constantly told that we’re making progress. The relationship we’re in — the arranged marriage that we’re in — it’s that we’re getting beat less.

Jimmy Fallon drew significant criticism this past spring for a 20-year-old clip of himself playing you in blackface on “Saturday Night Live.” How did you feel about that segment?

Hey, man, I’m friends with Jimmy. Jimmy’s a great guy. And he didn’t mean anything. A lot of people want to say intention doesn’t matter, but it does. And I don’t think Jimmy Fallon intended to hurt me. And he didn’t.

There’s been a wider push to expunge blackface from any movies or TV shows where it previously appeared. Have people taken it too far?

If I say they are, then I’m the worst guy in the world. There’s literally one answer that ends my whole career. Blackface ain’t cool, OK? That’s my quote. Blackface is bad. Who needs it? It’s so sad, we live in a world now where you have to say, I am so against cancer. “I just assumed you liked cancer.” No, no, no, I am so against it. You have to state so many obvious things you’re against.

Who do you hang with these days? Who’s your peer group?

I hang with Dave [Chappelle]. I hang with my kids. I hang with Nelson George. There’s not a lot of hanging in the Covid world. The better question is, who do you FaceTime with?

So who do you FaceTime with?

The other day I realized I’ve never met an elderly person that was cared for by their friends. Every elderly person I know that’s got any trouble is cared for by a spouse or a child. Sometimes they have like five kids but only one helps. Where are your friends? Your friends are probably not going to be there when it really counts. [Laughs.] When my dad was dying in the hospital, where were his friends? My grandmother, where were her friends? Don’t get me wrong, you get sick in your 20s, your friends will come to the hospital. It’s an adventure. [Laughs.] You get sick in your 60s, they farm it out. “You go Wednesday and I’ll go Sunday.”

Enjoy them while you have them. But if you think your friends are your long-term solution to loneliness, you’re an idiot.

#chris rock #black face #amerikkka #racism #racial hierarchy #donlad trump #comedy #black comedy #comedians #black comedians #interview #interviews #the new york times #fargo fx #covid-19 #covid 19 #long reads

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years

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Our Regularly Scheduled Program Vs Binge Watching

Every now and then the little light comes on and I grasp an insight into something that previously stared me in my oblivious face.

I was watching episodes of a popular sit-com* from 35 years ago, not a huge hit but certainly a cult favorite popular enough to stay available on recorded media and now streaming.

Not having seen it in well over two decades, I plopped down and started watching episodes back to back.

I got tired by ep. three.

The problem, I realized, lay in how the material was originally presented.

It used to be we’d have to wait every week for a show to come back at its appointed time, and present us with whatever shenanigans the characters got themselves into that week.

Most episodes were standalones, there was little forward progress in the stories and the tiny bit that did exist was mostly in the backstory, not the main plot.

Every week they gave us the same thing, only slightly different.

Mind you, I can appreciate the diametrically opposed tension facing shows of that era -- I wrote and story edited for TV at that time.

The audience wants the same thing they liked the last time…

…only different.

With daily shows like G.I. Joe and Transformers and Jem, trying to come up with something new enough not to be a dull repeat but not so different to alienate the audience was a challenge.

Luckily, the Sunbow series were awash in Joes and Autobots and pop stars and Little Ponies, so we could always find some underused character to build a novel story around, or to add a fresh twist to our old standards.

But even there, I don’t think one can binge watch too many at a time without feeling a certain sense of sameness.

Modern streaming series take that into consideration, but for me that works against them: I like my stories done in one.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

I’ll watch a 3 hour epic movie without qualm, but I start balking at 7 - 13 - 26 episode story arcs.

I loved season one of Daredevil, never watched season two.

I loved season one of Luke Cage, never watched season two.

I hear people telling me how great The Mandalorian is and I believe them 100%.

No desire to watch it, however (though this may be more the fault of seeing too many Star Wars features films).

Likewise zero interest in any new Star Trek, or for that matter any of the various Star Trek imitators out there.

One and done ripoffs / parodies excepted, of course.

I have the same problem with old movie serials, a genre and format I adore.

Nowadays I tend to watch serials by viewing the first three and last two chapters.

Everything in between tends to be padding.

The Sopranos seemed to be the exception, but then the show lost Nancy Marchand, who played Mama Soprano, and with it the entire raison d’etre of the series.

I clung with it for several seasons past that before abandoning it long before the final blackout.

The Venture Bros. still grabs my attention, but like the Sunbow shows it has a large enough cast to give it the needed flexibility to keep the stories varied yet part of the same universe as well.

It’s reportedly coming to an end with season eight, and to that I say good: Better to go out at the top of your game than jump the shark and flounder.

. . .

Modern audiences -- at least modern audiences with cable / satellite / Internet access -- no longer have the tacit sense of an appointed time and often and appointed place to enjoy media.

Prior to the electronic age, few people could be entertained whenever they wished unless they or a family member sang or played music or read aloud or told stories.

There were kings and nobles who kept musicians on tap and theatrical companies close at hand but even they were constrained by time and space.

Today’s audience can just whip out a phone and listen / watch / read whatever they want.

As a result, the sense of being an audience seems vanish.

An audience used to be those who came to a performance of some kind, even if it meant simply showing up in their own living room on Tuesday at 8:30pm (5:30 Pacific) to listen to Fibber McGee and Molly.

Even in one’s home, it meant setting aside a time to come in and listen or watch as a production presented its entertainment.

One may or may not like what one experienced, but the audience placed itself at the disposal of the program.

Transistors started changing that.

Transistors made small cheap radios easily affordable and eminently portable.

People could take their listening pleasure with them, and that marked the rise of recorded popular music programs instead of live scripted broadcasts.

It proved the first technological step in a long line of dominoes that completely upended the relationship of audience to entertainment.

The audience used to come and absorb patiently.

Now the entertainment needs to break through a thousand and one distractions.

It does so by escalating the sensationalism -- and by sensationalism I mean anything that’s designed to grab an audience’s immediate attention, no matter how well or thoughtfully executed.

It undercuts the lower key / slice of life popular entertainment audiences enjoyed generations ago.

(And, yes, Shakespeare & co. are filled with blood and thunder tales, but again, those were things one committed oneself to experiencing as the performers intended; audiences didn’t walk out en masse and go to a neighboring theater in mid-performance.)

. . .

The problem with ongoing stories is this: At any point they can be upended by fiat, negating all that’s come before.

Go ask a comic book fan how many times DC has destroyed the universe.

My reluctance to enjoy open ended fiction is that I like being able to mull over a story once it is completed, teasing out the full measure and meaning of what I’ve just experienced.

I’ll risk a program like The Queen’s Gambit because I know it’s a limited series withn a finite ending.

I wouldn’t watch an open ended series based on Walter Tevis’ book.

My career as a writer and an editor enables me to see the gears turning behind the scenes in a story.

More often than not I’m already several plot beats ahead of any movie or TV episode I’m watching.

I bailed on a highly recommended current program recently just halfway through the first episode.

I got the joke.

I knew where it was going.

Nothing about it enticed me to keep following.

The classic sit-com mentioned above wore thin because it was the same damn joke every time.

It’s a funny joke, mind you.

And when seen the way originally intended, I’d have a week to forget about the details of the previous episode, to be hungry of that particular brand of humor for a bit, and be willing to take a repeat of material a week later.

But back-to-back-to-back?

No.

Legendary writer / producer Stephen Cannel sold the first story he ever pitched to a detective series called Ironside w-a-a-a-y back in 1971.

Cannel began his pitch thusly: “One morning Ironside wakes up with the worst toothache he’s ever had in his life…”

And instantly everyone in the pitch session paid rapt attention.

Why?

Because they knew that whatever came next, it wasn’t going to be something they’d heard a thousand times before.

I’d rather have one simple thing that grabs me than a million and one fireworks attempting to get my attention.

And I’d rather experience that one thing and be able to process it rather than see another installment that undoes everything set before.

. . .

As I’ve posted elsewhere, there’s a place for comfort food TV.

My wife and I enjoy Emily In Paris.

It reminds us of our trips to France and the stories and characters are just interesting enough to be amusing but not so demanding as to require full attention.

Nothing wrong with comfort food TV.

But the real nutrition is found elsewhere.

And for me, this applies to all modes of art and entertainment.

* No, I’m not going to tell you the title.The point of this post isn’t the particular show, it’s the manner in which televised stories are told now as opposed to how they were told the

#Emily In Paris #The Queens Gambit #Fibber McGee And Molly #television #radio #streaming #broadcast #cable #media #The Venture Brothers #The Sopranos

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lycorogue · 5 years

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Fanfic ask meme: U!

Aww, Cy! And you said *I* ask the hard questions…

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Well, peeps, IT’S PROMOTION TIME!!!!!(Fair warning, these are going to be in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, sorry if you’re looking for a good author outside that fandom.)

1. @baneismydragon, you can find her on AO3 here.

First of all, Bane has a LOT of stories, and it’s fantastic to find an author with a lot of content to consume. Secondly, the stories have fun and unique concepts with them, and a nice level of snark. I love me some playful snarkiness. Plus, just such amazing fluff. Something about Bane’s writing voice always gets my heart racing during the action or romance scenes. Wonderful! My personal favorite is “And The Name For Your Order Is?”

2. @edendaphne, you can find her on AO3 here.

I was first drawn to her - excuse the pun - because of her illustrations. She was doing collabs with some great writers, such as Maerynn, and her illustrations always added an extra layer to the writing. But then Eden started writing on her own, and it’s just as fantastic. In her first solo story - Discordant Sonata - actually includes a sort of playlist within the writing, since the story focuses on music. She starts each scene with a link to mood music, and it really enhances the experience.

3. @midnightstarlightwrites, you can find her on AO3 here.

I actually found her via fanart drawn for her story Smoulder, and it is very much deserved. She tends to write aged-up ML stories so she can also include more adult themes. And let me tell you, she’s suuuuuper good at getting that heart racing with some steamy scenes ranging from major pent up tension up to softcore foreplay. The humor is also pretty on-point as well, which is great way to break the tension.

So those are officially my three, but you didn’t really think I’d end there, do you?

4. @thetauruspixie, you can find her on FFN here, and she’s starting to build up stories over on AO3 here.

She tends to write darker themes in her stories. She also has multiple projects going at the same time, so it’s fairly easy to find one that you’ll like and will update fairly regularly. She also writes epics, so you can enjoy your favorite story for a while. The one I’m currently following is Chat Vert, which is about Chat Noir’s jealousy once Luka comes onto the scene.

5. @buggachat, you can find her on AO3 here.

I started following her here on Tumblr after seeing the wonderful mini-stories she shared via her fancomics. Just like with Bane, Bug has fantastic comedic timing and just the right level of snark. Bug is still fairly new with the non-visual storytelling element of fanfics, but the concepts are so delightfully unique and truly delves into character exploration. I’m following her multi-chapter story Curiosity Wrote a Comic, which explores the emotional ramifications to Marinette and Adrien reading a fancomic that takes a fairly dark turn.

6. @chibisunnie, you can find her on AO3 here.

Finally moving away from my fandom, I met Chibi when we collabed on a (sadly abandoned) “Hey, Arnold!: The Jungle Movie” fanscript as a means to help encourage Nickelodeon to greenlight the project. Since then, we’ve kind of moved away from each other’s fandoms, but I still love reading Chibi’s works. Even though I don’t know the stories or the characters, I’m still emotionally invested. She focuses on the sort of background couples of stories; the ones that tend to be forgotten about in fanfics. She also keeps her writing fairly clean, so it’s just wonderfully wholesome. Finally, she usually focuses on gay relationships, including the struggles of finally coming out of the closet. Along those lines, I really enjoyed her Andi Mack story “Aren’t You Happy For Andi?” (It does include a spoiler from the season 2 premiere)

7. @cyhyr, you can find her on AO3 here.

Even though she’s the one who asked, how could I forget my girl Cyhyr? Just like Chibi, Cy doesn’t write in any of my fandoms, but that’s fine. She writes the characters in a way that you don’t need to know the fandom to care about the story. The characters are real and raw and in such need of cuddles all the time. She does like her some hurt/comfort. She mostly writes in the FFXV fandom, rotating between the Big Four: Ignis, Prompto, Noctis, and Gladiolus. I think my favorite story is Choice, mostly because of the subversion of the Soulmates trope.

Now, can I be a little self-indulgent here and include myself? Does that sound arrogant? I dunno, I just think you should enjoy your own work, ya know? “Write for you” and all that?

You can find me on FFN here, and on AO3 here (and if you’re truly desperate, I even post on DA here).

Of course, my pride and joy is my first completed multi-chapter story: Peeping Tomcat. However, I also really love my one-shot Build Your Own Luck, simply because this is now my headcanon as to where The BraceletTM came from. My Lukanette story I Was Thinking Of You also has a special spot in my heart.

I tend to write as close to true-to-show as possible, and I’ve had a lot of reviews telling me it’s like reading an episode script. I am kind of obsessive with keeping the characters as in-character as possible, and keeping the facts as canonical as I can.

OKAY! Long post is long! Thanks for the ask, Cyhyr! And thanks for everyone for indulging me. Love you all, and feel free to drop me an ask.

#ask #LycoRogue ask #ask me #Cyhyr #favorite fic writers #baneismydragon #edendaphne #midnightstarlightwrites #thetauruspixie #buggachat #chibisunnie #shameless plug #self-promotion #Tumblr games

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gracekraft · 6 years

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Steven Universe - Punching Up

It’s the end of the year and I wanted to spend time reflecting on the Steven Universe comics that I spent the better part of the year writing. I feel like they come out so fast that I don’t have time to properly talk about them. So as the volumes have started coming out, I thought I would take some time to talk about each of the stories featured in each collection!

Issues #5-#8 are collected in this Steven Universe Punching Up, #5-#7 are stories I wrote while #8 was written by the incredible Melanie Gillman! The stories featured in here were some of the first stories I came up with when I pitched them to Boom.

Issue # 5 - A Day in the Life of Lion

Illustrated by the stellar Meg Omac! ( @magecom )

I always thought it might be fun to make a story featuring the kind of mischief Lion gets up to when Steven is around, which seems to be like 80% of the time. I also remember there was a Steven Universe panel a while back where a little kid asked where Lion was, so I thought kids might enjoy a Lion story too.

I was honestly a little surprised I was allowed to do this since it’s a departure of the Steven’s point of view only that the show goes for. I normally try to keep to that in writing the comics but thought it might be fun to deviate away from it slightly.

This story is essentially a series of vignettes about Lion’s day, so pretty much exactly what the title says. I always love those episodes in a show where they deviate away from the usual story and story-telling format where we get a glimpse into the life of a character we don’t see as often but their POV on events is refreshing. I also love those stories about the secret life that pets lead when their humans aren’t around a la Hamtaro. Sadly Lion does not have a fun crew of other magical lions to go on adventures with, but he still gets up to some innocent mischief around Beach City.

Lion and cat Amethyst’s shenanigans were definitely inspired by a super old comic I made about them interacting. I always thought it would be cute if Lion was curious about cat Amethyst and took care of her like a little kitten. Cat pals!

Lion messing up the things in Pearl’s room is definitely taken from many an experience of my dog doing the same. He gets into anything that isn’t behind a closed door or out of his reach, and it’s not unusual to come home the a grand mess. Sadly no matter what you say he won’t understand you, only act innocent and leave the scene of the crime. Thus Lion is no different.

Lion’s adventures on the boardwalk were fun. Sadie and Greg are some of my favorite humans, so I enjoyed giving them a little spotlight, especially with their wariness yet acceptance of the magical pink lion that inhabits Beach City.

I thought a short detour to Rose’s fountain would be a nice peaceful, introspective moment within the comic. But even when it seems a little deep, Lion still has his cat antics and moves on.

I also wanted to give Lapis and Peridot a little spotlight since I always enjoy their barn life shenanigans. I’m really happy with how Meg captured each of their personalities in this scene, it translated very well from the script!

Lion finally gets his lizard prey after traumatizing Peridot. Honestly I still have no idea what those lizards are. Tiny gem mutants? Gem-infuenced fauna?? Whatever they are Lion eats them so I continue to add them in. And of course I had to end these adventures with a brief encounter with Garnet, who has a silent understanding of Lion. And then bookending it with Connie and Steven’s return, blissfully unaware that Lion even moved from the spot they left him.

Peach Panther and Purple Puma

Illustrated by Rii Abrego! ( @riibrego )

My inspiration for this was Amethyst’s line to Pearl in “Back to the Barn” when she says “Hey Pearl, you should come wrestling with me sometime!” I thought it would be fun to revisit the wrestling ring once more in the comics, Tiger Millionaire was one of my favorite season 1 episodes and we pretty much had seen the last of it in the show after “Tiger Philanthropist.” Thus, this is supposed to take place later in time than it appears based on Amethyst’s season 1 attire in this issue, but sometimes miscommunication happens in the higher management.

I wanted to write a story where Pearl gets out of her comfort zone and lets loose for a while. When I first wrote this story, I was still dealing with burnout and insecurity after my previous job ended, and I channeled that frustration into this story. At the same time, this is also one of my more self-indulgent stories in that it’s filled with a lot of things I like (Beach City Underground Wrestling, Pearl and Amethyst having a fun time together, cute character shenanigans etc.) so it was great expressing my feelings in a story I especially enjoyed.

Inventing Pearl’s wrestling persona was really fun and I’m grateful to have had to chance to add something fun like that to the comic canon. Between Purple Puma and Tiger Millionaire, I figured Pearl’s persona should match the cat theme, and I really liked the sound of Panther (goes well with Puma). Pink Panther already exists so I tweaked it to be the Peach Panther. I’m super happy that Rii captured the exact look I was going for with Pearl’s outfit. Pearl is not a fan of shapeshifting (and now we know why) so I figured she would be able to at least give herself an outfit and Steven would help jazz it up with the silly pink cat ears.

I’m not the most knowledgable about wrestling so I did a lot of research to get the names of moves right for Mr. Smiley’s commentary. I also had to go back to see what the names of the Beach City wrestling team names were and what the individual fighting names were. It was fun getting to pick my favorites to feature in the comic!

I loved writing the last page because it has those cute, wholesome interactions I am all about in Steven Universe. I’m also super happy with how well my script translated to the final pictures!

The Crystal Gems and the Sea

Illustrated by Meg Omac!

I love revisiting tiny details from the show in the comics, and this one is no different with the focus on the Gem Sloop from “Cat Fingers.” I thought it would be fun to have the Gems and Steven go on a mission where they couldn’t simply warp there, a fun sea-faring mission! There’s definitely several stories in addition to this one where I figure out a scenario that I’d like the write and then work backwards to figure out how the characters end up there.

Steven and Onion stories tend to involve G.U.Y.S or G.A.L.S one way or another, so I thought it would only be fitting to start the story off with them. While Steven has matured quite a bit from the earlier days of the show, he still has a childish wonder about him, and I figure he still does that thing where he sees something in the spur of the moment and thinks about how fun it would be to also do that thing, and then he finds a way to do so. While he won’t go to the extent of jeopardizing a mission to have fun, if he can still fit some games into a less dire mission then where’s the harm?

I’m really happy with how the character acting came out for the Gems’ and Steven’s interactions. It warms my heart to see how the Gems have grown to trust him more and more as the show progressed. I wanted to add some moments that reflected this growth and had fun writing it in.

Also I have to share the description I wrote for the eel monster because this is the kind of stuff I actually write to give an idea of what I’m trying to describe. She also ended up looking like an aquatic cousin of Centipeetle, and Sea-ntipeetle if you will.

I see some folks picking these comics apart for details that hint at something in the show, but I’ll be completely honest, while I do my best to write close to what’s believable for the show, nothing ties directly to it. Any monsters or instances that seem to hint at something greater are usually just completely coincidental! But it makes me happy that folks enjoy what I add in the comics.

The action panels for the fight are some of my favorites. They came out nice and dynamic are really convey the type of action I was hoping for. Fun and exciting!

I always see some folks complaining about how “townie” episodes are boring filler, but I just can’t disagree more! There’s definitely some townie eps that are among my favorite episodes, because even if they’re not about epic Gem adventures (though some still are) they feature important lessons for Steven to learn from his human half. I thought it would be fun to have Onion and his Dad be integral to the mission because townies and the human half of Steven’s life is just as important and valuable.

And that concludes the issues I worked on in volume 2 of the Steven Universe Ongoing series. I still really love this first batch of comics. Rii and Meg really hit it out of the park and added their personalities to the comics and made for very fun reads!

#steven universe #steven universe ongoing #steven universe comics #steven universe comic #comic recaps

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aelaer · 5 years

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Tagged: All about me and fanfic

Thank you for tagging me @dragonnan! My fan fic history is a long one... and in three fandoms. Which is why most of this will be under a cut for anyone who has a lot of time to waste. And is morbidly curious. But there’s some (okay, dozens) of fanfic recs for three fandoms under there too, sooooo.

Tagging at the top so you don’t have to read my verbose-ness if you don’t want to: @amethyst-noir @cairistiona7 @mdcbd @phierie if you’re interested in giving it a shot :)

1. At what age did you start writing fanfiction?

13. You can still find my earliest works online, too; I kept up anything that wasn't completely deplorable (though fanfiction.net deleted my stupidly popular, several hundred reviews of a story I did in 2004 because it was script format. The bastards xD Popular with all the little kids).

2. Who is your favorite author?

Lmaooooo what a question. Okay so for three fandoms. The big thing that’s common between all my favorite authors is that romance is not a primary genre with any of these writers. So if you like gen (of all genres) you’ve come to the right post.

If anyone here is a LOTR book fan (especially Aragorn), let me direct you to storiesofarda.com. It’s an old site, not even mobile friendly. Anyway, go read the works of Cairistiona and Meckinock. If you're more into hobbits and anything fluffy, go read Shirebound. That I remember their names since I was last active in fanfic in LOTR in 2011 speaks to their quality. I've had the honor of meeting Shirebound several times in real life as well, this last time in New York back in April after several years apart (though I'd like to meet Cair one day for sure, as well). I had a lot of favorites years ago but I’d need to reread the old stuff to see what still lives up to my expectations.

Scanning my favorites in Sherlock, Jolie Black , CaffeineKitty, and hollyesque on AO3. Stillwaters1, chappysmom, Radon65, and Morgan Stuart from fanfiction.net. But I have a couple favorite stories from authors who only wrote a couple fics (below).

Now the MCU (okay basically Doctor Strange, let’s be honest), on AO3: Grim Revolution and merrywil (the latter is pretty new and needs a hell lot more attention, she is a great writer). I love those long, introspective character one shots. There's not a lot of authors who don't focus on romance in the MCU with Stephen as a main character -- indeed, it’s partially nonexistent -- so shorter list. ElenaCee wrote some great stories just after the first film but has sadly moved onto other fandoms.

Dragonnan on AO3 is currently my favourite whump writer. Two of my fandoms and lots of my favorite tropes. I feel spoiled. My favorite romance-is-their-primary-genre writer is amethyst-noir for her characterization of Stephen combined with the oh-so-fun (for us) scenarios.

3. Favorite type of scene to write?

I can usually tickle myself quite a bit when I get some really great situational comedy into a story. I can never be fully an angst/whump writer because I adore comedy. So yeah, situational comedy for sure.

4. What is your favorite fanfic?

Stop asking me these questions ahhh. Okay so I'll be mentioning fanfics not by any of the authors listed above (which are in my most favorite stories too but, well, their works are all favorites anyway. Just look at all their works in said fandom for more favorites if you’re lacking reading material and have similar tastes. And once you’re done reading all the works by those authors, come back here for more. Seriously, read the authors above).

I listed these fics in alphabetical order because that seemed most fair.

LOTR (Most are book-verse. I need to reread a lot of these. Most of these authors have several works for the fandom, though I think each of these particular stories have Aragorn as a primary character):

A Proper Course of Action by GadFlyGirl (absolutely hilarious one-shot after Helm’s Deep about ‘the Denethor situation’)

Across the Years by MistyC (a very creative and well-written story that spins an old cliche in a much more interesting way)

Butterbur and the King by Eledhwen (fantastic character one-shot from one of my favorite minor characters)

Conversations with the King by athelas63 (great characterizations, good healing scenes)

Conversion by Pentangle-linnon (for everyone who says that first person can’t be done in fanfic - read this one-shot, then tell me what you think now. A work of pure brilliance)

Crossroads of Light and Shadow by Mirach (this one I recommend simply for the creativity alone; the art she was able to execute with the text in flipping fanfiction.net is really mind-boggling. Very creative!)

Doomed to Live by fliewatuet (it was never completed, but it’s so freaking good that I am putting it here anyway)

For Every Evil by Mirrordance (fantastic modern incarnation AU that spun out into a series)

Greet the Dawn by Neoinean (a great, very long long-shot with two characters meeting and it’s just a great combination of humor and angst. More great characterization)

Helping Strangers by Imaginigma (fantastic one-shot, really interesting OCs, a wonderful scenario)

In Shadow Realm by Legolass Q (original concept, well-developed characters, engaging plot, truly magnificent)

Light Fingers by Aearwen22 (I think this is the only fic here that doesn’t star Aragorn- he’s a pretty minor character. Brilliant brilliant characterizations of the OCs and a look of a part of society often ignored in LOTR fan fic)

Pale-Faced Tark by Carafinwe (everything by this author is brilliant, but the visceral imagery she managed to capture in two short chapters here still blows my mind)

The Patient by Scribe (another fantastic modern incarnation AU that spun out into a series)

Ransom by MP brennan (man I just continue to see how much the LOTR fandom completely spoiled me with all of these brilliant, plotty fics. Another original concept with brilliant OCs and fantastic execution)

Shattered Stones by MCat711 (a very creepy, original, well-executed one shot that keeps you guessing the whole way through)

The Weight of Power by Nefhiriel (does it follow canon as established by the Appendices? No. Do I care? No. The story’s absolutely fantastic and makes those small discrepancies mean nothing. This was also the first story I ever drew fan art for. I then made something for Shirebound a year later, then didn’t make anything again until that Ebony Maw piece I posted a bit back)

With Hope and Without Hope by docmon (AU scenario in that the Three Hunters are captured while trying to rescue the Hobbits. Very well-thought out and compelling plot, fantastic characterizations all around)

Sherlock:

Annie’s Song by Berouge (One of the only romantic-leaning fics listed here [Sherlolly], but that is due to its excellent characterization and execution. Creative one-shot.)

The Case of the Missing Bus Ticket by Unsentimentalf (I think I burst a rib laughing to this story. Long one-shot. Situational humor at its finest)

Constantly by thesignofserbia (great one shot concerning Serbia)

Drowning by Dayja (I like a lot of her stuff. Angsty.)

Firestorm by Dustbunny13 (This is... beyond words. So gorgeous. I adored it from beginning to end. Have read a few times. Sometimes accept it as season 3 alternate canon, it’s just fantastic)

Fortune and Bust by ThessalyMc (a wonderful gap-filler fic, very similar to a lot of my favorite authors listed above in quality and type of content)

The Green Blade by verityburns (excellent case fic)

The Holiday by Scriblit (both whumpy angst and humor and case fic? Yeeeessss. Another I’ve read several times.)

Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus by Caitlin Fairchild (another Serbia fic? Yes predictable of me)

London Orbital (another story, very long one-shot, where I burst a rib laughing)

Rigging screws, size 1 3/8 inch, galvanised by AJHall (another excellent case fic)

World Enough, and Time by StoneWingedAngel (an excellent and creative execution of a trope that you'll realize by the time you get to day three)

Doctor Strange (unless stated otherwise, they’re all one-shots. Need more multi-chapter fics... or just gen Stephen content in general):

The Architect by mudgems (a great what-if with Stephen, Loki, and the Time Stone)

Born of the Same Impulse by GwendolynStacy (WIP multi-chapter. Time stone shenanigans send Stephen and Tony back to just before Ultron and a few months after the car accident, but before Kamar-Taj [the accident happens in 2015 rather than 2016 for this to work. It’s brilliant])

Citizen Erased by Imagined (WIP multi-chapter. One of the only romance-is-a-major-genre story [ironstrange] on the list, but the plot concept is incredibly unique, the mystery is being unraveled so wonderfully well, and the collection of characters is really fantastic and in-character.)

The End of Infinity by FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls (WIP multi-chapter. It’s canon compliant, only Stephen does a fantastic trick after canon and snatches Loki from the claws of death to go back to 2016 and fix everything. Peter, Tony also co-star. I am very much looking forward to where this goes)

Extracurricular Activities by EmptyHead (I am cheating here and linking a series. But it’s so damn creative, and while Stephen plays a big role, he’s definitely not the starring character. Synopsis is that MJ learns the mystic arts. It’s really brilliant!)

Geniuses by decotex (Stephen Strange's and Tony Stark's backstories, published before IW came out)

Hearth Sorcery by keshwyn (Another cheat here with a series of 5 one-shots, but this is too excellent and undervalued not to link. Excellent OC and world-building, highly recommend)

Holiday Magic by KarToon12 (Stephen plays Santa Claus for sick kids. It's adorable)

i hope you hold the mirror up (to show me what i chose) by CallicoKitten (Stephen and Tony being assholes to one another, published way before IW. I love it)

Like an Old Coat by ValmureEld (Could definitely see this as a follow up scene to the events in the Doctor Strange film. Great character interaction sequence)

Magic In Our Veins by Luna_Heart (the lack of Loki and Stephen interaction stories is criminal. Absolutely criminal. I want more!)

The Night’s First Watch by fathomfive (omg this is so good. So so so good. Excellent character study, I can’t recommend it enough)

of coffee and (questionable) first impressions by Phierie (Ooohh I love this alternate first meeting lots. Beat up on monsters and a coffee break after the work. Great stuff)

Project Code 131793 by StrangeMischief (Absolutely haunting and incredibly well-executed AU. I would adore to see more in this universe, it is so interesting)

Replay by INMH (the horror of Dormammu and coping with it)

You’ve Got Mail by Jadesfire (it’s about the mail situation with the Sanctum. What is not to love about that concept)

5. What tags do you avoid like the plague?

A/B/O, mpreg, not Mary friendly (for Sherlock), not Team Cap friendly, anti-Steve, anti-Wanda (or similar). Any of that anti-character bullshit, but in the MCU those are the two I see the most (and so probably make me rage the most. I once saw anti-T’Challa for instance and that just confused me more than anything). A bit of a rant in the next two paragraphs (I have Strong Feelings on this topic).

I don't tolerate the anti-character crowd. I really don't. Disliking a character is one thing and completely normal (I have my own list), but expanding time and energy to write just how much this character sucks is mind-boggling (and tends to make for really shitty fanfic. So you create a strawman villain of the character you hate for your favorite character to go against? Good job, you’ve made your favorite character appear entirely too stupid to deal with a well-developed character in conflict, and have made your favorite character 2D. Have a gold star). Your energy can be used elsewhere that isn't focused on hate. If you hate the character but aren’t creative enough to present them as anything but a strawman in your writing, don’t bother. Create an OC for your antagonist instead. Stop making canon characters so ridiculously OOC.

The real world is too filled with negativity to have it as part of a major focus in my fandom experience. It actually really, really bothers me that I cannot save a filter that automatically excludes all those anti tags as they haven’t been canonicalized on AO3. What perhaps bothers me even more is the number of kudos those hate-filled fics with incredibly OOC characters receive. The hypocrisy in this crowd is just astounding when you start pointing out the flaws in their favorite characters, too (FYI: All well-developed characters have flaws. I love Stephen Strange for his flaws. Before Stephen made his debut, Tony Stark was my favorite for similar reasons. It makes them INTERESTING).

Anyway, rant over.

6. What AU do you wish to write but feel like you won’t manage?

If I really really really want to write something, I'll write it. That said, there are things that I don't plan to write that I would adore reading (like that unfinished Stephen travels to the HP universe in Harry's fifth year fic ahhhhh I want that it would have made the 5th year so much better. Maybe if I bribe the original writer with fan art... wardmason you’re killing me).

7. Do you outline, or write as you go?

Depends. The outlines only tend to come into play for long stories with several scenes, and writing tends to happen first before outlining.

8. What has been your favorite story to write so far? Why?

Such hard questions! Uhhh I had great fun writing in my youth but I can barely remember it. Within this last year, uh... can I just say all of them? I've written about 100k in 6 months, I'm clearly enjoying myself here. I’ve had vibrant moments of delight in writing or planning several of them.

9. Do you prefer to write one-shots or multi-chapters? Why?

Both. Just depends on the story I want to tell and how long that story is saying it should be. I like posting a variety too; have one-shots coming out while I am working on the longer stories in the background.

10. What is your favorite kind of comment?

Oh those deep analytical ones that clearly took time to write. They're so lovely and really make my day. Every fanfic writer knows exactly what type of comment I am talking about.

11. Why did you start writing fanfiction? Why are you still writing?

I started because I had just seen the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and I really liked the characters (before the sequels ruined them in various capacities) and I thought, "I should put them in Middle-earth!" 45 chapters and 7 years later that damn fic got completed (after dozens and dozens of rewrites as my writing abilities improved over the years).

Now, it's because I really enjoy writing and I like playing in copyrighted playgrounds with characters and worlds I love. Yeah, I could write an original novel, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

#personal #about me #fanfic #fic rec #doctor strange fanfic #lotr fanfic #sherlock fanfic

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deanky · 5 years

Text

Total - C. Martin Croker Q&A

Total TV: I know you were already an animator before you got involved with Space Ghost. But did you also know that you had this great talent for voices?

Clay Croker: I used to work out at the laser show way back when. Ten years ago. It's out at Stone Mountain Park, this giant granite mountain that sticks right up out of the ground, and they project laser shows up against the side of it. That was my first animation job. I created a character right when I started out there, they had this bear character and they wanted a sidekick for the bear. So I came up with a Possum character that they called CW, which stood for Civil War, argh. [mimes vomiting] I didn't come up with that part. But I also wound up doing the voice of that character too. So I was doing voices for laser show characters a decade ago. And I'd always done goofy voices on my answering machine and stuff, and I was always a fan of Zorak from the original Space Ghost.

Oh, really? So this was like a deep-seated desire?

Oh, yeah. They started rerunning Space Ghost in 1978, when I was in high school. And we'd all talk about it at the lunch table and stuff. And there would be friends of mine who'd be like, Brak's my favorite, he's the coolest, he's that Tiki cat kind of guy. And I was going, oh, man, Zorak blows 'em all away. You don't know what you're talking about. So I actually did like a Zorak answering machine message probably while I was still in high school.

God, it'd be great if you still had a copy of that.

I may. I may. I save everything. I have answering machines tapes going back to '80. So when Space Ghost was pitched to Design Effects, where I was working, I had to kind of horn my way in. 'Cause they were just gonna make it a designer job and not have any animators in on it. And I was like, wait a minute! What do you guys know about Space Ghost? You know about any of the villains? And they were like, well, maybe we should have him sit on this. So I wound up actually suggesting that Zorak be on the show, 'cause I was such a big Zorak fan. I was going like, we gotta have some villains on the show! Zorak would be perfect! And [Cartoon Network programming head] Mike Lazzo agreed. He said well, Zorak was always one of my favorites too.

But I was dismayed when I found out they weren't going to use the original voices. 'Cause I thought, Oh boy, we're gonna be working on shows with Gary Owens doing the voice of Space Ghost and Don Messick doing the voice of Zorak Then I find out no, no, no, we're just gonna go with local guys. And I was horrified. I was like, oh, man, here I thought I was giving Zorak a career boost. And there was a point in a meeting where they said, hmm, well we're gonna have so and so do Space Ghost, so that solves the Space Ghost dilemma. Who are we gonna have do Zorak's voice? There's this long silence, and I'm like, well, it's now or never. And I just said, Well I can do that voice. And they were like, do it. So I just spat out one of the old lines I remembered and they were like okay, you're Zorak, that solves that problem.

What about Moltar? Did you have any affinity for him?

No. Zorak I really wanted on the show. And then we started reviewing Space Ghost cartoons at Design Effects, and the first cartoon we looked at was "The Evidence of Moltor." They changed his name between first and second season, I think they probably just couldn't remember what he was called. Originally, they had Andy [Merrill], who does Brak's voice, come in and read for Moltar. He sort of did kind of what wound up being Brak, sort of the same crazy inflections. And they were like, I think that's a bit strong. And then right before the show went to final edit, they said we want you to come in and read for Moltar. Can you do like a Ted Cassidy kind of voice? And I went [switches to sonorous basso] well, sure, I think so. And they said, well, go on in there and do it. So I thought what the hey. But, you know, the rest is history.

Do you ever get confused going back and forth?

At rehearsal. That's the only time I get confused sometimes. LIke I'll have Zorak and Moltar arguing, and sometimes I'll wind up starting to do the other character's voice and inflection. I'll see the word and think, Oh, this is a Zorak line. And it'll wind up being the other way. Sometimes I have to go, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, okay. Start the clock again."

Do you ever get up in the morning and feel like it's a Moltar kind of day? Or a Zorak kind of day? Does the identification ever go that far?

Well, the cool thing about Zorak is the fact that I can pretty much say what I'm thinking if I say it with Zorak's voice. Like at conventions and stuff, when overbearing fans get in our face I'm like, [in dismissive Zorak voice] "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

People love to be insulted by Zorak.

Oh yeah. Well, it definitely makes it easier to deal with some of the fans. We get some pretty rabid fans for Space Ghost. To me it's like, you know, it's just Space Ghost. But we've had some people that are just absolutely, like, crazy for the show. And being able to deal with them as Zorak does make things easier, because you can be like, [in nasty Zorak voice ] "Yeah, well pipe down, sonny, I hear your mother calling you." And they're like [breaks into rabid-fan chortling].

Do people assault you with their version of Zorak's voice?

Usually not. I think, you know, they would be too self-conscious about it. But we always get the guys who come up like with buttons all over their shirts and stuff, and they'll be like, [switches into moronic stoner voice] "Let me be a character on the show, come on, I do good funny voices." OK, we'll get your card and we'll call you. But in answer to your question, the only time I really feel like [a character] . . . I actually feel more like my other alter ego, who's the cartoon series that I've got on the side burner, which is Mr. Angst.

Mr. Angst?

Yeah, and I very often feel like Mr. Angst, a lot of the time.

How does Mr. Angst speak?

Oh, I'm still working on that, but it's somewhere between like Lenny Bruce and someone that has screamed till they're hoarse.

That sounds a little bit like Brak.

Yeah.

At least the screaming end of the spectrum, not the Lenny Bruce end.

Actually the guy that does Bird Man's voice I'm thinking about using as a character. But I think I'm going to use him as Mr. Angst's pal Crude Dan. He was based on a real guy I knew called Crude Dan.

What's Mr. Angst look like?

Let's see, well he's sorta kinda like . . . I don't want to say Danny Kaye because that involves a lot more connotations, but a lot like Danny Kaye gone bad, sort of.

The vessel with the pestle has the pellet with the poison.

So he pretty much just looks like this. [starts to sketch] One of these days . . . I've got some pencil tests done of him already, but with all the animation realism shows that are being worked up now, like King of the Hill and all these more reality-based shows . . . I've been wanting to do that for like . . . I mean I've had this character on the back burner since like '91.

Wow. He looks like a bit of a hipster.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Well I mean he's about like 35 to 38, somewhere in there, and like really into barbecue and bowling and all kinds of stuff like that. Oh, and he's always got to have that un-PC butt hangin' out of his mouth. [sketches it in] So he would be like . .. oh, I forgot all the . . .

The angst lines.

Yeah. [sketches them in]

That's really cool. Mr. Angst. Can I keep that?

Certainly.

Maybe after this big push for the new Space Ghost Coast to Coast episodes you'll have some time.

Well, the thing that's cool is because there's been so much Space Ghost stuff going on I've been able to ramp up my production. I've been able to like get more desks and pencil test machines and all the other equipment that I need when I eventually start doing something other than Space Ghost. But I've also heard rumblings that there's already something besides Space Ghost waiting in the wings, so we shall see.

Beyond Cartoon Planet?

Yeah. Yeah.

I love Cartoon Planet.

Oh yeah, me too.

And Zorak's Horrorscopes.

Yeah, Pete Smith wrote all those, they were a blast. I think we've done like the entire zodiac.

Pete wrote a bunch of, like, wacky stuff, a lot of the songs the Cartoon Planet Band sings on the show. Are we still recording?

Yeah.

I just wanted to like get the process down from the start. We read through the script, we make notes, I come up with a thumbnail story board, I show that to [line producer] Jim Fortier and then I work up the actual first draft of the boards. Then we have a meeting and go through basically all the boards and say, well, we want to use this, we don't want to use that. Then I work up the final boards, they get approved and then they start being animated. So that's how the process gets rolling, as far as like where all the new art comes from.

And that's basically your domain, the new art?

I do all the new animation for the show. I run my own animation company, Big Deal Cartoons. I actually run it out of my house, I have a studio set up in the basement and have freelance animators, all of which have 95 jobs in this town, doing animation because there's been such an explosion of the art form in the last year or so I can just get them at night. Right now, we're mostly working on Space Ghost needs.

What exactly do you do here in the Flame Room, Clay?

Tear our hair out? [laughs] This is where we do digital ink and paint. And then composite those new cells into other scenes. Which in this case is all the scenes of Bird Man sitting at the desk, stuff that did not exist in the original Bird Man universe. We do new animation compositing, rotoscoping some of the existing animations from the '60s and take Bird Man and Space Ghost and other characters out of them. We cut 'em out of their original scenes, give ''em new backgrounds, put 'em into a set.

You actually cut them out digitally?

Frame by frame.

That sounds pretty time-consuming.

It is. The show's kind of like a waking hours thing. While I'm awake, I'm thinking about the show. Before, up to this point, we'd been on the air almost three years and put out 33 shows. About a dozen shows a year. This year, we're doing 26 new episodes so it's a big change. As is usual around here, I'm booked in more sessions than just one at once. Right now I'm doing the Fred Flintstone thing at the drive-in and the bowling alley, where I'm like running up and down the hall all day long monitoring what's going on in ink and paint and what's going on in the actual composite, which is in here. So all the cells are brought in, we bring them in under the camera over here and shoot them directly into the paint box room. They digitally ink and paint them, like you're seeing an example of right now. Sometimes we add special effects. Space Ghost blows up Zorak in another scene, we have to paint him to make him look likes he's charred and burned.

Do you use like a stock image of Zorak charred or do you actually create that for every episode? 'Cause Zorak gets zapped a lot.

They have pretty much a standard few scenes where he gets charred, and they just use that over and over. In fact, they just made a new one. But yeah, we try to keep it as standardized as possible. We try to keep all the colors standard.

What about Zorak's boinks? Are the boinks new animation?

Where he bounces?

Yeah.

No, actually that's something that they digitally did. The first time I saw that I went, wow, what was that? They said, "Oh, that's something we were just messing around with." And I was like, okay. I just wondered, you know, 'cause most of the time now if there's new artwork involved in the show, then [senior Flame artist] Butch [Seibert] and I--or whoever is working in here, like putting it together, but most of the time it's Butch--we like put together all the new scenes. But every once in a while they'll come up with something and just go, "Oh, well that's a Tom thing," and they'll have [online editor] Tom Roche come up with something in final edit.

You guys have all these great names: Croker! Roche!

Yeah. [laughs] So I'll see the show and like all of a sudden see something I had nothing to do with and go, "Wow, what was that?" Well, too late to change it now. Watching it on TV.

That must also be kind of fun in a way. You get a little surprise.

Yeah, well, it's like reaching into a bag and getting, like, eeyew, noodles!

#space ghost #sighs sadly #sgc2c #c martin croker #hy angst #still makes me sad....#but also really cool at the same time #but the sadness overcomes it once again

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